“Not a bad idea,” Lindsey said. “Maybe we should assign someone to the Crow’s Nest at Prospect Mountain at all times.”
Colton nodded. “We’re going to need more rifles. Might need to ask around if some of our residents are willing to donate some for our new officers.”
“I’ll put that on my list, sir.” She paused, and then shot him a sideward glance. “Why do you have to run this stuff by Mayor Andrews? Woman doesn’t know a damn thing about protecting Estes Park. She owns an art store, for God’s sake.”
“She’s the mayor. She was elected. That still means something.”
“Yeah, but—”
“You going to start questioning me like Don?” Colton asked.
Lindsey shook her head. “I’ve got your back one hundred and ten percent, sir.” She parked the truck in front of town hall. Colton opened the door and went to get out but hesitated, remaining halfway inside the vehicle. Hearing about the rape and the increasing violence had him on edge.
“You watch your back out there today, kiddo,” Colton said.
Lindsey’s pale cheeks flared. “Kiddo?”
“Sorry. I meant to say Detective Plymouth.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Just be careful.” He wished he had someone to send out there with her, but his officers were all busy protecting critical facilities or at road blocks that Don had assigned them.
“I’ll report back in a few hours,” Lindsey said. “Good luck with Mayor Andrews.”
He patted the top of the truck and then walked into town hall. The mayor’s office door was already propped open. He knocked anyways and stepped into the room. To his surprise, Don wasn’t out checking on patrols—he was sitting in the chair in front of Gail’s desk with his cowboy hat on his lap. He nodded at Colton, but didn’t make an effort to stand.
“Good morning,” Gail said.
Colton looked at Don. “What are you doing here?”
“Sergeant Aragon is here to discuss a few items,” Gail said.
“Sergeant Aragon has work to do,” Colton replied. “These daily briefings are supposed to be between just us two.”
Gail took off her glasses and set them gently on the table. “Colton, please have a seat. Let’s not make this meeting any more difficult than it needs to be.”
She gestured for the chair next to Don.
“I’ll stand,” Colton said. He controlled his anger by counting to ten in his head. Starting a fight now wasn’t going to do anyone any good.
“Suit yourself,” Gail said. “Let’s get right down to it. I want an update on what’s going on outside this valley.”
Colton gave her a rundown of the major law enforcement and recovery activities since the EMP attack, including the capture of the Todds, as well as his plans for elk hunting and water preservation. He finished with the task that he’d given Detective Plymouth to find new officers.
“How many officers?” Gail asked.
“As many as it takes,” Don said before Colton could answer. “We can’t let anyone in. We have to cut off the borders.”
Colton narrowed his eyes at the sergeant. They’d butted heads before, but Don had never shown this kind of attitude. Maybe it was because Jake was gone, but Colton had the feeling Don had finally decided to make a power play.
“I’d like to be in charge of the deputizing,” Don said. “Lindsey is a smart young lady, but she isn’t trained in hiring.”
“She’s more than capable, and I’ve already put her in charge,” Colton said.
Gail tapped her finger on the desk. “Back to the elk. How are we going to protect the herds? We need to be careful about how many we kill.”
“I’ve already talked to Ranger Field, and he’s going to help monitor the hunts and make sure the rules are enforced.”
“When the food is gone, we’re not getting more,” Don said. “We need to consider evacuating all non-locals. There’s no way we can feed everyone indefinitely.”
“Evacuating?” Colton clenched his fist. “Is that what you’d call it?”
“Anyone who doesn’t have a valuable skill set is a burden on our town,” Don said. “You’re the one who told our officers to not let anyone in who can’t contribute.”
“I also said anyone already in town the night of the attack would be safe here.” Colton’s fingers twitched as though they wanted nothing more than to curl into a fist and sock Don in the jaw. “I’m not going back on my word, Sergeant.”
“All due respect, but you’ve made some poor decisions lately,” Don said. “First with the handling of the murders, letting Raven and Nathan take our best vehicle, and then using medical supplies on a woman who probably won’t live.”
Colton shook his head. “Not this bullshit again.”
“Stop it, both of you,” Gail said.
Colton continued to glare at Don, who held his gaze.
“If you’re both done,” she said, looking between the two men, “there’s something else I want to discuss. Our jail was never meant for holding prisoners long term. What do you suggest we do about Milo and Cindy Todd?”
“Hang them,” Don said.
Colton couldn’t believe his ears. He gawked at his patrol sergeant. Was this the world they were living in now—a world where justice was decided in an office instead of a courtroom?
“That’s insane,” Colton said. “We can’t start executing criminals.”
“I’ll do it if you won’t,” Don said.
“Are you sure they helped kill Officer Nelson?” Gail asked.
“Not a doubt in my mind,” Colton said. “They would have killed me, Lindsey, and Raven in the forest off Devils Gulch, too.”
Gail bowed her head and massaged her wrinkled forehead. When she looked up, she gave an order Colton wasn’t sure he could follow.
“Execute them, Chief. We have to be strong. We have to show everyone that Estes Park will not be broken by violence and fear.”
“Damn straight,” Don said, his black eyes gleaming.
If Colton didn’t know better, he’d think the sergeant was excited about the notion.
What the hell was happening to the people of his town?
***
Sandra was exhausted, but she made herself put on a clean set of scrubs. It was her last pair, so she’d need to figure out the best way to wash her laundry soon.
Teddy was first on her rounds when she got to the hospital for another fourteen-hour shift. She stopped at her station and put on gown, gloves, facemask, and goggles, all necessary for extra protection while checking his wounds. Necrotizing fasciitis was a complex condition. It required constant monitoring and lots of antibiotics. If Teddy didn’t heal soon, they would have to venture out of Estes Park to find him the meds, or else they’d have to cut off any newly infected tissue. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers and other high-tech treatments were not an option with the power off.
Teddy was sleeping on his back, blond hair matted to his head. She checked his vitals with care, trying not to wake him. His pulse, blood pressure, and respiration were normal, but she could tell he was running a slight fever by the sweat on his forehead. She checked it with an old-school thermometer and watched the mercury rise to one hundred and one degrees.
Teddy blinked several times when she dabbed his forehead with a cold cloth. When he finally focused on her, a smile dimpled his cheeks.
“Hi, sweetie,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m kinda hot.” He craned his neck to look around. “Is my mom here?”
“No, she’s looking after my Allie right now.”
Teddy raised his stump and examined the bandage. “It hurts this morning.”
“I’m going to check it in a second, okay?”
He nodded and rested his head back on the pillow, his smile gone. Over the past few days, Sandra had seen his mood slipping. It was beginning to sink in that his arm was gone. He always looked away when she checked the dressing, as she was doing now. He’d been in the hospital for
weeks now after being rushed here with gangrene-like symptoms. At that point he had already been suffering from the flesh-eating bacteria, and it had been too late to save his forearm.
She slowly rotated his arm in her gloved hands to examine the site of the amputation for inflammation. It all seemed to be healing nicely, until she saw the red, swollen patch of skin.
“Am I okay?” he asked.
Sandra hesitated, wondering if she should call Doctor Duffy over right away. She bandaged his arm back up and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon, okay?”
“Okay,” Teddy said. He positioned himself on his side, hugging a stuffed bear against his chest.
Sandra walked back into the main area to look for Doctor Duffy. He was standing outside the isolation room where they were keeping Martha.
Duffy looked up from a clipboard as she approached. “Sandra, good morning. How’s our youngest patient?”
“Teddy has some inflamed skin around his elbow.”
“I’ll go take a look,” Duffy said. He cursed under his breath. “We’re running low on antibiotics.”
“I know,” Sandra said.
“Martha’s in pretty rough shape, too,” Duffy said. “She still hasn’t said a single word since Colton and Don dropped her off. Colton asked me to try and figure out what happened out there. I’d like to see if you can get her to talk when she wakes up.”
Sandra looked through the glass panel into Martha’s room. She was sleeping, her chest slowly moving up and down. Duffy arched his bushy brown eyebrows and held the door open for Sandra.
“Check her vitals,” he said. “I’ll go check on Teddy.”
Sandra nodded.
Duffy stepped back into the other room and Sandra prepared to check Martha’s vitals. Just as the door clicked shut, Martha’s eyelids fluttered open.
“Doctor Duffy,” Sandra cried out. “She’s awake!”
Footsteps pounded the tile floor outside, and Duffy opened the door a second later. He joined Sandra at the bedside.
“Ma’am, can you hear me?” Duffy asked.
Martha struggled to raise her eyelids. Half open, her eyes flitted from Duffy to Sandra.
“I’m Doctor Duffy and this is Nurse Spears.”
The woman looked at Sandra with frightened eyes. “The children,” she mumbled through cracked lips. Her voice broke, and she brought a hand up and pointed to her mouth.
“Water,” Sandra said. “She needs water.”
Duffy returned with a bottle and helped position the straw at Martha’s mouth.
She took several long gulps, then jerked her head away from the straw.
“The children,” she said again. She was breathing faster, lungs wheezing. “You have to find the children.”
Duffy looked at Sandra, then back at Martha.
“What children?” he asked.
“The soldiers…they took the children on the road. Have to find them.” Martha gasped for air. You have to—” Her voice cracked again, and her eyes rolled up into her skull as she lost consciousness.
***
Raven put another blackened rock on top of the pile covering the fresh grave. Hundreds of years ago, his ancestors had buried their dead like this, but Raven never thought he would be doing the same thing on the side of a highway.
“He was a hero,” Nathan said.
“There wasn’t anything else you could do for him,” Raven said.
They had spent the night trying to save Lieutenant Dupree’s life while the fires raged around them. Four hours before sunrise, the Marine had succumbed to his wounds.
Raven stood beside the grave in the gray morning haze and looked out over the smoldering valley below, shaking his head. Dupree hadn’t been able to tell them much before he died—and what he had said left Raven wondering if the lieutenant had gone crazy. He’d been ranting about castles and birds and Nazis.
“You follow any of what he was saying?” Raven asked.
Nathan nodded thoughtfully. “Ty’s code word is ‘falcon.’ Not sure about the castle, but it sounds like some kind of Aryan Brotherhood, white supremacist types are behind the kidnapping.”
“So you think we’re looking for a bunch of skinheads?” Raven asked.
“Yeah, and I think we should get moving,” Nathan said. His boots sank into the mud as he walked back to the Jeep. The rains had finally suffocated the fires and turned the charcoaled terrain into a soggy mixture of mud and ash. Their CBRN suits were smeared with the black residue.
Nathan held the Geiger counter toward the sky. The chirp of the counter sounded, rising into a steady tick.
“I’ll be damned,” Nathan said. “The radiation readings have gone down. Makes sense, I guess. Last night’s storm must have further precipitated the radiation.”
“Precipitated?” Raven asked.
“Yes,” Nathan said confidently. “We should be good to take our suits off.”
Raven didn’t hesitate in removing his helmet. He pulled it off and took in a breath of steamy air that carried the overwhelming scent of smoke.
“Come on,” Nathan said. “I want to cover as much ground as possible today.”
He glanced down at Dupree’s grave one last time and then patted Raven on the shoulder.
“We’re going to avenge him, and we’re going to find Ty,” Nathan said.
Raven pulled his ponytail behind his head and tied it in a knot on the way back to the Jeep. He wasn’t overly optimistic, and he was beyond exhausted. He shook away the fog of war, something he hadn’t experienced since North Korea.
Raven went to open the Jeep door but stopped when something strange caught his eye. He stared at the blackened carcass of an animal resting by a boulder on the side of the road. Bending down, he pulled out a quill from the dead porcupine. He held it in his fingers, a chill going through his fatigued body. He set the quill on the dashboard and grabbed a cloth from his backpack. He dabbed it in water and then wiped his forehead clean.
“Shit. This is the end of the world, Major. No doubt about that now,” Raven said. “I thought maybe we could come back from this, but I think this is the end of the line for the human race.”
Nathan swallowed a piece of granola and tilted his head to one side. “What?”
“I said the same thing to Colton the other night. The signs are all around us.”
“Yeah,” Nathan said. He dumped water onto a cloth to scrub his face. “North Korea did nuke us. I’m not sure if the country is going to bounce back for a while, but I don’t exactly think this is the end of our species.”
“It is,” Raven said with confidence. For some reason, the revelation didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would.
“Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow,” he said, “but this is the end of civilization as we know it. The old Sioux woman has finally finished her quilt.”
“Huh?” Nathan said.
Raven started the engine and began driving down the hill. “There’s a Sioux story that tells of a place where the prairie meets the badlands—a place with a hidden cave.”
“You’re starting to sound a bit crazy, man.”
“Just listen,” Raven said. He paused and rolled his window down slightly. “Inside the cave lives a woman. She’s been there for thousands of years working on a blanket strip of her buffalo robe. Beside her sits Shunka Sapa, a massive black dog. He watches her while she flattens the porcupine quills with her teeth for the quilt. A large fire burns in a pit. This fire has been going for thousands of years inside this cave, and over the fire burns a pot of Wojapi, or berry soup.”
“Does this story have a point?” Nathan asked.
Raven steered around a vehicle and kept talking. “Every once in a while the woman gets up to stir the soup, and the big black dog pulls the quills from her blanket strip.”
“So what?”
Raven shook his head as they approached the Humvee on the bridge. “This is where that ambush happened,” he said.
White ash surro
unded the deflated tires. Every window had broken, and the paint was burned away. An explosion had blown the top open like a turtle shell that had detonated from the inside.
“I have a feeling some of these skinhead bastards are also soldiers. Not just this General Fenix asshole that Dupree mentioned,” Nathan said. “Who else could get a drop on Dupree’s unit?”
Raven slowly drove over the bridge, a gray mist rising around the vehicle. He’d had the same suspicions about their chases. From here on out, Raven had to keep an eye on every bluff to ensure they didn’t end up like the lieutenant and his team.
Nathan had the same idea. He gripped his carbine in both hands.
“You going to finish your story or what?”
“Yeah, sorry,” Raven said. “The Sioux legend says that when the woman finishes her blanket strip, the world will come to an end.”
Raven scooped the porcupine quill off the dashboard. “I found this on the side of the road back there.”
“It’s just a coincidence.”
“No,” Raven said. “It’s not.”
He eased off the gas when he saw bodies on the road ahead. He brought the Jeep to a stop. The nearest corpse was so badly disfigured from the flames that Raven couldn’t see the features. He stepped out onto the street and bent down to read the nametag on what was left of the man’s uniform. Raven put his sleeve over his nose to keep out the scent of burned flesh.
“Looks like this guy was with the Colorado National Guard,” Raven said. “Last name was S-something. Shit, I can’t make it out.”
“Let me see,” Nathan said. He hustled around the Jeep to take a look.
“Doesn’t make any sense,” Nathan said. “Why would the Marine team have been ambushed with a Colorado National Guard unit?”
“You think the guard unit were in on it?”
Nathan was already moving back to the truck. “No idea, man, but we don’t have time to sit around and investigate.”
“We’re just going to leave these bodies out here?” Raven called out after him. “You don’t even want to drag them off the road?”
Raven already knew what Nathan’s answer would be. They didn’t have time to bury these soldiers like they had Dupree. He jumped back in the vehicle, feeling like he was betraying the ghost of every Marine that had ever died by leaving Dupree’s men and the guard unit on the road. He didn’t like to admit he was sentimental, but leaving a man behind, even a dead one, threatened to bring him to tears.
Trackers Omnibus [Books 1-4] Page 41