The Day After Never - Perdition (Book 6)

by Russell Blake

  “Cold. Must have left at some point yesterday.”

  “Think we can catch up to them today?”

  “At the rate they’re covering ground, I’d say so. But don’t expect them to welcome us with open arms.”

  “They’ll understand, I’m sure, once we tell them what we learned.”

  “Maybe. Unless Art was right.”

  “He’s not. They’re basically good men. Caleb would never turn his back on Mary and Rosemary.”

  Lucas walked to Tango and climbed into the saddle. “If you say so.”

  “He’s God-fearing.”

  “I’m sure that will make a difference.”

  Jeb glowered at Lucas. “What is it with you?”

  “I don’t have your optimism.” He gave Tango a switch with the reins and twisted to Jeb as the stallion began walking. “One of us will be right.”

  The day wore on without incident, the sunshine slowly surrendering to a patchwork of clouds. They were paralleling the road in silence when Lucas hissed a warning to Jeb and slowed Tango to a halt.

  “What is it?” Jeb asked.

  Lucas silenced him with a finger to the lips and then pointed ahead of them at the road. Jeb peered through the trees in the direction Lucas had indicated, and then whipped his rifle free, his face white, and exchanged an alarmed glance with Lucas.

  Lucas nodded and whispered, “Chinese.”

  Six soldiers were sitting by the side of the road, allowing their horses to graze and talking in low voices. If Lucas hadn’t heard one of the men cough, they would have almost ridden over them, and with their superior numbers, any skirmish would have been short-lived. Jeb raised an eyebrow and leaned into him.

  “Can we circle around them?”

  Lucas thought for a moment. “Problem is they’re shadowing the caravan. Which means they’re not giving up.”

  “We can warn the council.”

  “The patrol will have a handheld and be relaying their position.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  The muscles in Lucas’s jaw tightened. “Take them out.”

  Jeb looked like Lucas had sucker-punched him. “Are you nuts?”

  “We’re far enough away that nobody in Astoria will hear us. They’ll just disappear, and the trail will go cold here.”

  “They outnumber us three to one.”

  “But we know they’re there. They don’t know we’re here.”

  “So what do we do? Start shooting?”

  Lucas studied the terrain and nodded slowly. “That’s not a bad approach.”

  “I was kidding.”

  “I’m not.” Lucas paused. “Dismount and we’ll approach on foot. Ground’s damp, so we shouldn’t make much noise if we’re careful.”

  “What if they sense us or something?”

  Lucas checked the magazines in his flak jacket and slid from the saddle. “Then they’ll shoot first.”

  Jeb joined him on the mushy trail, and they tied their horses to a tree and crept slowly forward, Lucas in the lead. When they were halfway to the soldiers, Lucas stopped and murmured to Jeb, “You ever done this before?”

  Jeb squared his shoulders. “I’m up for it.”

  “That wasn’t the question.”

  “I won’t freeze.”

  Lucas sighed. “Okay. Keep your rifle on burst mode. Don’t use full auto – it’s a waste of ammo and will throw your aim all over the place. Stay at least ten yards from me, and keep behind cover – a tree trunk will stop a bullet just fine. Don’t start shooting until I give the signal, and then we neutralize them as quickly as possible. No reason to waste time and give them an edge.”

  “Just like that? Gun them down?”

  Lucas hardened his voice. “It’s either us or them.”

  “Not if we edge around them and warn the town.”

  “These are the people holding your wife and daughter. If you have a problem doing what needs to be done, how are you planning to rescue them?”

  Jeb flipped the fire selector on his rifle to burst and eyed the soldiers. “How do you want to do this?”

  “I’ll move over there. These rifles are accurate to four hundred yards, and they’re no more than fifty, but that works both ways. You a decent shot?”

  “Reasonable.”

  “Aim for torsos, not heads. Keep firing at your target until they drop their weapon, and then move to the next. Start at the closest one on the left, and I’ll take the right. Whatever you do, don’t approach them when it’s over. I’ll handle that. If you get hit, keep shooting until you can’t anymore. With only two of us, we’ve got no choice.” Lucas paused. “If we do this right, they won’t have a chance to engage us. Let’s make sure they don’t.” Another pause as Lucas regarded Jeb, concerned at the slightly manic light in his eyes. He knew a look of panic when he saw it, and Jeb was close to that edge. It was a common enough reaction to going into battle for the first time, but Lucas knew from experience that a first-timer could either perform or blow it, leaving Lucas to deal with the situation on his own. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Ready?”

  Jeb nodded and licked his lips like his mouth was suddenly dry.

  Lucas knew the feeling. He patted Jeb’s shoulder. “Wait for my signal,” he said, and then made his way toward a promising pine with enough girth for him to hide behind. When he reached it, he crouched down and raised his M4 to sight on the soldiers, and was drawing a bead when Jeb’s rifle barked from his left.

  Lucas cursed as Jeb’s shots failed to find targets and peppered the nearest soldier with a three-round burst. The man fell backward and Lucas was firing at the next, the buck of the rifle against his shoulder as familiar as a lover’s caress. His rounds found home, ripping through the soldier, and Lucas frowned as he tried to acquire another target – more difficult now that the rest of the gunmen were rolling from their positions, scrambling to bring their weapons to bear.

  Jeb’s rifle echoed again and again, and finally one of the soldiers cried out, the scream ending in a gurgling moan. Lucas ignored his own advice as the seconds ticked by and flipped the M4 fire selector to full auto and emptied his magazine at the men. The shower of rounds caught one in the throat, but the last two were now in the brush and Lucas was unsurprised when they returned fire.

  He ejected his spent magazine and slammed another into place, ignoring the bullets thwacking into the tree. When there was a brief pause in the shooting, he loosed two volleys at the last position of the shooters and then craned his neck to see how Jeb was faring, the shooting from his spot suddenly stopped.

  The big man was fumbling with a magazine, his hands trembling so badly that he was having problems fitting it into place. Lucas swore under his breath and fired another burst at the soldiers to buy Jeb time, and then sprinted for another tree further from the Chinese. Gunfire rattled from their weapons, and Lucas silently prayed that Jeb would start shooting again, if nothing else to lay down cover so he could get an idea of exactly where the soldiers were, but nothing happened for what seemed like an eternity. More shooting from the Chinese sent showers of dirt into the air around Lucas, and he cringed as a handful of slugs thwacked into his new conifer cover. Finally Jeb’s rifle resumed firing, gaining Lucas some breathing room.

  The Chinese concentrated their aim on Jeb, and Lucas spotted a head in the brush directly above a faint muzzle flare. He acquired the man in his scope and squeezed the trigger, continuing to watch through the high magnification as the soldier tumbled backward and out of sight.

  A hail of bullets answered Lucas’s burst. Jeb continued to shoot as Lucas kept out of sight, allowing the soldier to waste his magazine on the tree. The staccato chatter from the Chinese AK stopped, and Lucas used the opportunity to cut across to a felled tree even further from the soldier’s position. A lone man who’d just watched his fellows cut down would undoubtedly be shaken, giving Lucas an advantage with a steadier aim. Unless Jeb surprised him, that was his only edge, because it was a cage fight now
where only one side would walk away from the battle.

  Jeb’s second magazine must have run dry because his weapon fell silent. Lucas slowly eased the M4 over the log and peered through the scope, watching for motion. When he spotted a flash of green uniform, he was almost too late, but made up for it by firing burst after burst into the brush, hoping for a lucky hit. Jeb’s rifle joined Lucas’s in saturating the area, and when both their rifles were out of ammunition, no more shooting answered from the brush.

  Lucas reloaded and waited patiently, secure that they’d at least wounded their target. A minute went by, and then another, and he called out to Jeb.

  “You okay?”

  “I…yes.”

  “Stay in position and don’t shoot.”

  “I…sorry about the early fire…”

  “Stay where you are.”

  Another minute passed, and Lucas saw nothing more in the underbrush. When he was sure that he wasn’t going to be drilled by a Chinese round, he forced himself to his feet and zigzagged through the trees to where he’d last seen the soldier.

  When he arrived at the spot, he saw a bright crimson smear on the ground, and he spun and dropped like a rock just in time to avoid being shot by the soldier’s pistol. Lucas fired point-blank at the wounded man no more than five yards away. His rounds pummeled the Chinese, his pistol flying from his hand as Lucas’s bullets tore through him.

  Lucas resisted the urge to continue shooting and watched to see if the man was still breathing. When there was no rise in his chest, he stood and walked over to him, barrel leveled at his head. The soldier’s sightless eyes stared into infinity, and Lucas shook his head to himself. It had been close.

  Too close.

  Lucas made his way to the side of the road, where the rest of the soldiers lay sprawled in pools of blood, and verified they were all dead before pushing through the scrub to the others’ positions. When he’d confirmed nobody in the party was left alive, he called out to Jeb.

  “You can come out. Put your safety on before you do.”

  Jeb appeared by the road moments later, his bearing unsteady. He looked at the dead men and his face whitened, and then he vomited up the contents of his stomach. Lucas watched him impassively, remembering when his reaction would have been the same.

  That had been a long time ago. Before he’d taken life so easily; before his existence had been a series of kill-or-be-killed conflicts; before his humanity and faith had been tested to the point where he’d lost count of the lives he’d extinguished without hesitation and where the faces of the dead no longer haunted him in his sleep.

  He remembered something he’d read in one of his grandfather’s books about staring into the abyss, and the abyss staring back into your soul, changing you at a fundamental level.

  It had indeed been a long time since the sight of his handiwork sickened him as it did Jeb.

  Perhaps too long.

  Chapter 21

  When Lucas and Jeb caught up to the Astoria convoy, they were met by a dozen rifles pointed at their heads, the men holding them as unfriendly as it was possible to be without shooting them outright. They raised their hands to show the gunmen they weren’t brandishing weapons, and one of the men raised a radio to his lips and spoke quietly into it, his attention never wavering from Jeb. When he lowered the device, Jeb frowned at the man.

  “Bill? It’s me. We’ve known each other for years. You really think you need to hold a gun on me?”

  “Sorry, Jeb. Orders. We all heard about what you two did to Hayden. Pretty low move, if you ask me.”

  Jeb glared at Lucas. “Wasn’t my idea, Bill. All I wanted to do was go back and see what happened to my family. Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same.”

  “That’s neither here nor there. It’s not me you need to convince. Hayden and the mayor are on their way. You can speak your piece to them.”

  “Hubert is still doing your thinking for you?” Lucas asked. “What is he, mayor for life? Town’s gone. Why do you still do what he says?”

  Bill’s eyes narrowed. “Keep your trap shut until they get here.”

  “What happened to thinking for yourselves?” Lucas continued, his tone reasonable.

  “I said shut up.”

  “I heard you. Didn’t realize that it was against the rules to speak your mind now. What else have they banned?”

  Bill raised his rifle. “One more word, and so help me…”

  Jeb cut in. “Is it okay to kill people now for voicing their opinions? Is that what we built, Bill? Why not just move back to Astoria and let the Chinese do the dirty work, then?”

  Bill’s grip on his gun seemed a little less steady. “It’s not like that.”

  “Really?”

  “You clobbered the sheriff. That’s gonna have consequences.”

  Jeb indicated Lucas. “He also brought the vaccine that saved everyone’s lives. And helped turn the tide of the attack on the town. And those rifles you’re holding? The bullets in them probably came from the base he raided to get you weapons.”

  “Take that up with the mayor.”

  “Well, well, well,” a voice said from behind the men, who parted to let Hubert and Hayden through. “You have some balls to show your faces here after what you pulled.”

  Lucas glanced at the discoloration on the side of Hayden’s head and frowned. “Sorry I had to do that.”

  Hayden didn’t respond, preferring to allow Hubert to do the talking. “You hurt our sheriff and violated the rules that we’re depending on to keep us alive. In doing so, you jeopardized everyone’s safety. That can’t stand.”

  Lucas fixed the little man with a stony stare. “You don’t own me, Hubert, and we aren’t in Astoria any longer. You don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, got that?”

  Hubert blinked twice and then regained his composure. “That’s not how it works, Lucas.”

  “Really? When did I decide you get to tell me where I can go?”

  “You have to abide by our rules when you’re with us.”

  “Who came up with that rule? That I, an outsider who’s done nothing but help you clowns, can’t go back and try to save the woman you failed to help, as you promised? Let me guess. That’s your rule. Bet everyone didn’t vote on it, did they?”

  “The council did. Our word is final,” Hubert said self-importantly.

  “Your word isn’t going to save anyone’s lives. Did you hear the shooting earlier?”

  Hayden spoke for the first time. “What are you up to, Lucas?”

  “There was a Chinese patrol tracking you. Did the council know that? Any of you?”

  Hayden and the mayor exchanged a glance. “You’re bluffing,” Hayden said.

  Lucas slowly reached one hand toward his pocket. The gunmen stiffened. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to pull a gun.” He retrieved a green fabric hat with a bullet hole in it from his pocket and tossed it at the mayor. “That’s a Chinese army hat. I don’t bluff. They were radioing your position. You’re blown. We terminated them, but there’s more where they came from, and if you think they’re going to just leave you in peace, you’re delusional.”

  “You killed them all?” Hubert demanded.

  “What – did you make a rule against that, too?” Lucas snapped.

  “That’s enough out of you,” Hayden growled, and took a step closer to Tango, who snorted at him and stamped a front hoof. The sheriff backed off, and Lucas patted his steed’s shoulder to quiet him.

  “You people have a serious problem, and your little council’s strategy of running away isn’t going to keep you safe. At best it bought you some time. But make no mistake – they know the road you’re on, and there will be more of them. If you people don’t grow some backbone and do something real to protect yourselves, you’re dead men walking.”

  Hubert swallowed a lump the size of a walnut and looked around at the gunmen, who didn’t appear as convinced about Lucas and Jeb’s outlaw status as earlier. He cleared his throat and lowered
his voice. “You can take this up with the council. We’ll have an emergency meeting before we rule.”

  Lucas laughed dryly. “You know what? How about the whole town gets to hear what I have to say instead of just you? It’s their lives you’re playing with.”

  “That’s not how things work.”

  “Why not? When did you get anointed the decision makers in life-or-death situations for a group on the road?”

  “Can’t hurt for everyone to hear how it really is, Hubert,” Jeb added reasonably.

  “We can’t afford to have everyone distracted by you,” Hubert countered. “We have enough problems as it is.”

  “So you don’t think the adults in this group can handle hearing the truth?” Lucas demanded. “Do they know you have such a low opinion of them? Or is that just something you keep in the council?”

  “You’re twisting my words.”

  “We just got back from Astoria, where we watched an endless stream of soldiers march toward Portland. There are at least two hundred in town, and they’ve taken the women and some of the men prisoners and are using them for slaves.” Lucas let that sink in. “They mean to do the same to every one of you. The people in this group need to know what they’re facing so they can start making their own decisions, not have you filter the facts so you can manage them. Any authority you have comes from them granting you that authority. I’m willing to bet they didn’t give you the power to keep them in the dark.”

  “That’s enough!” Hubert exclaimed, his face flushing. “I said you can address the council, and–”

  Bill lowered his gun. “Don’t see why he can’t talk to all of us. Not that many, are there?”

  Hubert shook his head. “Absolutely not. If everyone with a grievance thinks they can take up the town’s time–”

  “I want to hear him,” Bill said.

  Another of the gunmen lowered his weapon. “Me too.”

  And still another. “Me three.”

  Lucas gave a grim smile. “Seems like the natives are a mite restless, Hubert. It’s decision time.”