by Cal, Sarah
"Emma, listen to me! Something's wrong—"
"Merry?" She was talking through her tears, and Emma could barely understand, but she thought Merry was trying to warn her. "Try to calm down, please."
"No, Emma, stop! Something terrible is about to happen! You have to listen to me, I saw it all in a vision!"
But Emma wasn’t listening. She heard 'vision' and was already moving away. She fumbled for Merry's table, knocking things around in her haste but hardly caring. She didn’t even care that they were making too much noise and would wake up everyone else in the house. When her hand finally closed on the bottle that was always left on Merry's table, she felt relief. But then the bottle shook as she picked it up, and she froze.
Emma shook it again, experimentally. Merry should have been taking more than a pill a day, and some time had passed since Emma got the prescription for her. And yet, Merry still had a full bottle. When Emma shook it, she realized there was more than she would have expected to find. She realized, though she assumed Merry took the pills when she wasn’t looking, aside from the first time and the other time Emma made her take them, Emma had never actually seen her taking the meds.
She had assumed, when her sister hadn't had nightmares since that time that the medicine was working. But she was having one now.
"Why haven't you been taking your tablets!"
Merry was silent for about a second, and then she screamed. "I may as well be dead with those tablets in my system!"
Emma sighed, and it almost came out as a sob. She moved carefully over to the bed. "Just take a pill, Merry," she pled. "You need sleep, and so do I."
"Forget that," Merry said with surprising urgency. "Something bad, Emma, right now. We have to prepare to run."
Emma didn’t listen. Emma heard a strange noise, and it was coming from outside. Merry had gone silent again, so she could hear it clearly. She realized it was the sound of a car—something she hadn't heard in a long time, let alone in the middle of the night.
There had to be some explanation for it. But Emma couldn’t help her heart and breathing speeding up. Why would there be a car outside, at this time? And why would it be anywhere in her neighborhood? She hadn't heard it before, but then, she her attention was caught by Merry's scream, or she wouldn’t have been awake to hear it.
Unnerved by the car and Merry's prediction, Emma left the room. She had to wake the guys up. Both Chase and Brian were downstairs, and she made her way down as quietly and quickly as possible, trying not to knock into things. Of course, then she almost fell over one of them, stepping on something too fleshy to be the floor, and stumbled back with a squeak until she hit against the wall. There was a groan and some cursing, and Emma spared a second to hope she hadn't hurt whoever it was she stepped on.
"Brian, Chase, both of you wake up!" she whispered harshly.
She stepped forward and shook the body she had stepped on, and then stumbled over to the couch where another body slept. Thankfully, it didn’t take them long to wake.
"What is it?"
The voice was so hoarse, she couldn’t tell if it was Chase or Brian, but it didn’t matter.
"There's someone outside. I heard a car. Would you guys come check the scene out with me?"
She didn’t get an immediate response. They were reluctant, and she had a feeling it had to do with their arguments with her, and she growled under her breath. They needed to get over it, and themselves. They didn’t say anything, but she did hear them both get up and go to the front doorstep together, Emma following behind them.
Once the door was open, there was just enough light that she confirmed it really was a car. She hadn't heard that a working car had been found. But why was one even out this late at night and in her neighborhood? She didn’t think it belonged to someone that lived around there, it wasn’t a car she recognized.
As they left the house together, a woman got out of the car with a gun. She aimed it right at them.
Emma felt her breath catch in her throat. Merry's words repeated in her mind, and she wondered when she would come to listen. After everything she'd come to learn of human nature in the past weeks, why had she thought coming outside and being so obvious was a good idea? They could have at least gone through the back door and gotten around to see what was going on.
Would she keep making such stupid decisions for the rest of her life? Even though the rest of her life was looking short at the moment.
She wanted to curse herself for her idiocy. Of course people outside with a car at night wouldn’t be up to anything good. And Merry had somehow been right again, but Emma ignored her advice and did the opposite of what she'd said. Now she, Brian and Chase would likely pay for it.
And then the woman spoke.
"All three of you, put your hand in the air and surrender."
They didn’t have much of a choice. The only weapon they had, the gun, she had already given up to the police. Emma was terrified, but did as she was told. Brian and Chase did the same thing, but since they were both sort of in front of her, Emma couldn’t see the looks on their faces. She wondered if they hated her in that moment as much as she hated herself. All she was good at doing was creating a mess.
A group of other women got out of the can holding weapons. The woman in front of them smiled viciously, and smugly announced, "Your houses are about to be raided."
Chapter 27
Emma was shaking.
She didn’t know what to do in this situation. She had been in danger before, and she even had both the guys with her, but the last time they faced down gun welding crazies, she got hurt, and their things were taken. They were lucky to get away with their lives.
There was a big chance they wouldn’t be walking away from this one.
But this was so much difference. This was in their town, at her home. With her sister and grandmother in the house, unable to protect themselves. There was no real difference, yet this was so much worse. And she felt the acute loss of easy communication she had taken for granted more than before, knowing there was no way to alert the police. Even if there had been, it would have taken too long for help to arrive.
"We don’t have much to offer," Chase told the group, and Emma started. "What is it that you're looking for?"
The woman leading the raid rolled her eyes. "You know exactly what we want, it's what everyone currently wants—food. I want the three of you to step aside so we can take what we want. And maybe, you'll all get to live."
Of course food was currently more useful than money. What else could they possibly have come for? Their house was in the middle of the block. Emma wondered how many houses they had robbed before making it to theirs.
"We don’t have anything to give you," Chase spoke again, insisting.
Emma wished he would keep quiet. Usually, it was her talking that got them into trouble. Chase must have been frustrated to be talking back, and she wondered if that was her fault.
It was expected when it came. After all, it had happened to her before. But still, when one of the women came forward and whacked Chase around the face with her gun, it hurt. He was the one in pain, but Emma could almost feel it. Of course, the person hitting him was smaller and weaker than him, and Chase was so much bigger and stronger than herself. But the woman hadn't held back and he fell to the floor on impact.
"Shut up," she hissed at him.
Emma made a noise in the back of her throat. Even unconsciously, though, she knew the danger. The noise wasn’t loud. But it wasn’t as quiet as she hoped, because one of the women pointed a finger at her. That or she made some movement that had been noticed.
"Don’t help him up, unless you want the same treatment."
Emma would have moved to help him anyway. Her injury was healed, though Emma hadn't looked at herself in the mirror since. There were times when Chase looked at her and his eyes drifted to where she'd gotten hit, and she had the feeling her face looked all wrong and he couldn’t help but notice it. Her defiance died away as she t
hought that.
Merry and Janice turned up on the stairs, and Emma turned a little so she could see them. They weren’t being quiet, or Emma could say Janice wasn’t trying to, but they both looked scared and confused. Merry not as much as Janice, because she already knew something bad was about to happen. She didn’t even look at Emma, or the guys, just stared straight at the women with guns.
"Stay where you are until we finish collecting what we want," they were warned.
None of them needed to be told that their lives depended on it.
They went inside the house, and Emma was glad to see Janice and Merry keeping still and quiet. Her sister had a hand on Janice’s arm, holding her too tightly, but Emma was just glad Merry had thought of their grandmother at all, if escaping had still been her plan.
They looked through the cupboards, taking whatever they found, and Emma prayed silently that they wouldn’t find the food in the shed out back. They still had quite a bit in the house, and Emma could only hope that it would be enough for them, that they would take it all and leave.
It was too much to hope for.
One of the women came back to where they were standing, and had them moved through the house. They left Chase behind because he was still on the floor, unmoving, and she was worried he was badly hurt. But she had to worry more about herself and Brian now, and hope Merry and Janice didn’t do anything to get themselves hurt because one woman stayed behind to look after the three of them.
Emma could feel her heart sink as they walked to the back. She knew where they were being taken, even as she vainly hoped that she was wrong.
"There's a shed in the garden with a padlock out back," the woman said. "What's in the shed?"
They were looking right at Emma, and she felt something in her chest quiver.
"I don’t know," she lied. "It was my mom's, and it hasn’t been opened since her death."
It was a lost cause, though.
"I commend you for your 'touching' story," one of the women said, and broke down the door, jamming a crow bar between the door and the doorjamb, and giving it a hard kick. The lock was as old as the wooden door; it broke apart easily.
She looked inside, having to squint to let her eyes adjust to the darkness in the room, but then her eyes widened.
"Hey, ladies! I found a treasure trove!" she exclaimed, drawing more of the women from her group with her excitement.
The excitement transferred to the rest of the group, and they didn’t even bother to be quiet as they greedily took from the shed. Someone stayed with a gun held to them as the rest transferred the food to their van. Emma could do nothing but watch as they took away the only good thing her family had.
When their van was full, they stopped taking. Emma felt relieved, but it only lasted for a moment.
"There's too much stuff in here to fit it all," one of the women says, sounding awed. "I have no idea where the hell they got all this, but damn. We can't carry everything right now."
"So we don’t," another said. "The van's full, unless we want to leave someone behind we can't take more right away."
They laughed to themselves as they left. The one still holding a gun to them dropped it as she followed the rest of her group.
"We'll be back in a few days to collect the rest. You shouldn’t resist our force if you want to live."
There was some more laughter as they left. Emma listened until the front door was closed behind them and she rushed inside the house to Chase. It was still dark, darker now with the door closed so there wasn’t even light from the moon, but her eyes adjusted to the dark. She knelt beside Chase, ignoring her stinging eyes, and pulled him in for a hug. The vice in her chest loosened slightly when he didn’t move away from her.
Chapter 28
Chase and Emma stared out of the window where the van was.
Chase was, thankfully, not as hurt as she had thought. He must have let himself fall to the floor instead of standing his ground to appease them. Why had he said anything at all, knowing the situation? Usually, it was her saying something stupid and getting herself hurt, and there was no way he wouldn’t have learned from her experience. She wasn’t sure why he had done it at all, but she couldn’t ask, just then. There was just relief that he wasn’t as badly hurt, but he must have felt the hit, and her own cheek gave a phantom ache of sympathy.
The woman might have been smaller and weaker than Chase, but she had given all she had into the swing, Emma had heard how loud the impact of it on Chase's cheek was. He wasn’t unconscious, and he probably wasn’t concussed, but he would still be in pain. They didn’t have any pain meds in the house, but Chase didn’t ask for any.
The women hadn't even left yet. The van idled outside, and Emma wondered if it was because there were other women that had gone to other houses already before Emma, Chase and Brian left theirs and made themselves a target.
She also thought, ridiculously, that it might have been deliberate, like they were taunting them. That thought made Emma clench her hands into fists, until she discarded it because it sounded stupid. If they were still there, it was to serve their own purposes. But Emma couldn’t help thinking it, because they must have been out there long enough that, had someone managed to run off and get the police, they might have gotten caught still idling there.
Still, there was no guarantee that there were any cops at the station at night. It might have ended up being a lost cause. Which meant that those women could stay out there for as long as they wanted, and Emma could watch them the entire time, and they would still be getting away with it.
All the food they had stolen was right there and there was no safe way to get it back. She was itching to go out there and do something, even knowing it was foolish. She didn’t move, though. Even if she had a death wish, that was no excuse to include her family in her idiocy. They had to stand and wait, and watch as those women did whatever they wanted and left, because they were the ones with the weapons, and the power. Emma and her family, and plenty of others she was sure, had been caught off guard by the attack.
There was nothing anyone could do, if they wanted to live through the ordeal.
The shed was relatively big, and Merry had fit it almost full of food. They would have taken about half of everything they had, but likely less. The van was big itself, but considering how many women she had seen, if there were others, along with their weapons, they couldn’t have taken a lot before it was too much for the space they had. And they would be coming back for the rest of it.
So Emma and her family wouldn’t be left starving. But it was only for the time being.
Emma felt so inadequate. She felt so useless. Now that the threat of death wasn’t hanging over them, for the moment, she was angry. At herself, at those women. All she could do was stand there and let them do as they wanted. She didn’t have a choice, any more than Chase or Brian had, but she hated herself for just freezing and not even thinking of something to do.
What was all that talk, about her protecting her family? Providing for them? All she did was cause more problems, it seemed to be all that she could do ever since the crash. Merry actually thought Emma had anything going for her, the current situation just proved she didn’t. Why would her sister have ever been jealous of her, when Merry was the one always doing what was best for them, while Emma just thought she was doing what was best.
They could not just stay there like sitting ducks, waiting for those women to come for the rest of their food. Emma refused to starve, she refused to let her family starve. Whatever Janice had intended with her garden, those women had trampled all over it, so they would have to start from square one even there. Her fists clenched at her side and she shook with her fury, and it only made her angrier when she realized there was nothing she could do with all that energy.
"We need to prepare for their return. I don’t know how we're going to do it, but we have to do something. We can't just sit and wait for them to come back."
She could hope that they would s
tay with what they had and eat it all before they came back. If they were careful with the food, they had taken enough that they could live on it for a month, if they really tried. They would have that long to do something before they were subjected with that again, but Emma was sure it was more along the line of a few days, not weeks. They would expect them to take some action, so they might come even earlier.
They could do something in that time. Whatever it was, Emma didn’t care in that moment, she just wanted to keep what belonged to them and have those women hurt, be in the same situation they were putting other people in.
Even with the time, though, she didn’t have a plan.
Emma didn’t feel like running away from home, though it was the first thing that came to mind, and the most logical thing to do. It might only make things worse for her family if they attempted to move, though, and where would they all go?
If she's still had the firearm, what would have one gun done against so many of them?
"They have the advantage, Emma," Chase pointed out unnecessarily. "They have weapons, more people and transport."
Emma growled. She knew all that. She had seen it for herself. There was no way to move all the food without others getting suspicious, even if they could move it to someplace else. There was still Chase's place, but it was far, and it wouldn’t be any less dangerous there, so close to the greater population. Of course, she had assumed her quiet little neighborhood was also safe, and this happened.
They couldn’t just give up the food now. It had been weeks. If she went to the police, they would ask why she hadn't done it right away. She was already in trouble with them, they might just throw her in a cell and let her rot there, and she would drag everyone else in with her.
"We can't just allow people to invade our home!" she said stubbornly.
Maybe she was acting naïve again, but Emma felt ready to kill. If she still had the gun, she knew she would have shot those women, killed them without a second thought.