The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  Kenn was scribbling furiously to get it all, and Angela felt Adrian’s anger as if it were her own. He’d added up the clues and was upset over what he’d come up with. It meant he really hadn’t known. How had Kenn hidden it for so long? Did that mean Kenn was a different person here? Had she ruined his second chance by showing up?

  Kenn’s thoughts were along the same lines, and he was gone quickly, leaving an uncomfortable silence.

  Angela could feel Adrian and Neil forming questions. She smiled brightly, retying her sweater around her hips with a woman’s slow distraction. “Did we beat the time?”

  They both shook their heads, jaws tight, and expressions unreadable.

  “Missed it by half an hour,” Neil said thinly.

  “Oh well. I’ll get better the more I do it.”

  Very aware of the neat way they were being manipulated–this tactic was used regularly on the herd–Adrian turned to Neil. “See you at lunch?”

  “You know it.” Neil was sure Kenn would hate the way Angela automatically fell in on Adrian’s right.

  Adrian checked his watch as Neil left. “Ready for food yet?”

  “For lasagna and garlic bread?” she joked. “I’d do dishes for that!”

  “Me, too.” He liked it that she was taking the time to read the signs they had posted. The sooner she learned the rules and settled in, the sooner they could get rolling. “Meet you in the mess in half an hour?”

  Angela wasn’t sure where she should go. “I’ll wait in Charlie’s tent, if that’s okay?”

  Adrian didn’t waste his time telling her which one it was. She had tracked him across the country.

  “You can roam freely now. People know you’re new and will help you, but if there’s a problem, have a sentry call me.”

  Angela was embarrassed at the suspicions running through his sharp mind. “I’ll be fine.”

  “If you don’t tell me, one of my men will. I know everything that happens here.”

  He walked away, and she didn’t feel arrogance, just pride and protection, and was encouraged. There was no longer a reason to tolerate a boss, and yet they labored here, following Adrian’s leadership as if he was their savior, and really, she could see why they might feel that way. In how many other refugee camps (if there were any) would old people and kids be so well cared for?

  Adrian appeared to take the useful and the burdens alike, and had respect for both. How many of these “useless” people had been left for dead before he had taken them in and cared for their needs?

  Most, she thought, going to her Blazer. She liked the feel of this place, the constant reminders of good days gone by, and she wanted to be a part of these people. If Adrian had as much sway as he thought he did, there was a lot she could do for them.

  6

  Adrian went straight to his tent, eager to write it all down while everything was fresh in his mind. He drank a Coke and smoked on one of the blunts that he’d rolled last night while the heartburn (anxiety) was keeping him up. He’d been smoking a lot lately, trying to ease the worry. In the future, this sort of thing wouldn’t be allowed on a daily basis for any of Safe Haven’s members. Right now it helped with their grief (and his guilt), and it was certainly better than staying too drunk to hurt, but it was an evasion of life that had to end. I’ll handle it when the camp is ready, he thought. Long before that, they would have to accept Angie for what she was.

  Adrian had done many things during his military career, including four years in an underground lab in the Utah desert. There he had been involved in top-secret programs that had tried to create people like her. The successes were minor. The best had been a kid who could tell which direction the enemy was, but the things he had witnessed today were genuine, natural. She hadn’t spent time in a lab or taken chemicals, and Adrian tried hard to record it all. She was the first descendant he’d come across since the war, though, her son could also be put in that category now.

  Adrian had no real proof, just odd words and odd moments, but he knew it as sure as he knew they would find no place on American soil that was safe enough to rebuild. He doubted there would be a single normal human life left on this continent ten years from now. The radiation was already making its slow changes, working on the smaller animals and the plant life, lingering in the air they were all breathing. Bad now, but the mutations would get worse, and that made Angela the crucial link in the circle. She would help him figure out where they went from here. As long as he didn’t push people too fast. If they suddenly found out she could read thoughts, she would never be trusted, and eventually, they (the sheep, not the shepherds) would drive her out despite his support.

  It could get tense, but it could also be perfect. If he was careful, the camp would accept her as another much-needed doctor, and she would get the chance to become more. He would see to that, especially if her gifts were what he was hoping. If she got flashes of the future, he would give her whatever she needed to stay. The rules wouldn’t apply to her.

  Adrian changed his gasoline-splattered clothes and stepped outside. As he cleared the row of kids’ campers, he immediately spotted Angela going toward the QZ with a heavy-looking black duffle bag in hand. She stopped at the tape, and Marc came from the medical tent with the wolf heeling alertly. Adrian knew he wasn’t the only one who felt the sharp, yearning connection. How close were they? A thousand miles was a long time to resist such a strong attraction, especially when the only rules that said a person had to were the ones in their own head.

  Marc stopped with a few feet of space between them, and Angela set the bag down, pushed it under the tape with her dusty boot. “I packed you a few things.”

  Marc could feel Adrian studying them. “Thanks. You’re not being quarantined?”

  “No. You out today?”

  “No.”

  Their mouths said the right things, but Adrian read between the lines. He had forgotten about Marc, too excited at having Kenn’s mate turn out to be even more valuable than he was. She didn’t want Kenn. She wanted the Wolfman, and life would be full of sinkholes and black ice for the three of them until things were settled.

  Adrian turned toward the mess, but caught Angela’s motion. He waited, subtly watching as she said something quietly to Marc. The sparks of attraction flew between them until she left, breaking the magic.

  Angela could feel Adrian’s disapproval as she caught up with him and she let out a soft sigh of sad frustration. “I won’t give up my…friendship with Marc to stay and help you. We should have that clear now.”

  Adrian sighed, but said nothing. He was hoping she would trust him with something important to who she was on the inside.

  “Marc and I grew up together. He’s the only person I trust without reservations. When we…lost touch, it almost cost me everything that mattered.” She stopped, drew on her courage. “I understand your dreams, and yes, I could be useful to you, but I won’t trade anything or make deals. What I give will be willing or not at all.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way, but if I can give you what you want, I will,” Adrian promised gravely. “My word on it.”

  Angela found Kenn in the front of the mess line, where a gusting breeze was cooling the sweaty skin of those breaking for lunch from various chores, games, and activities.

  “I want my family back. To give me that, you’d have to tear apart your framework and start over.”

  Adrian assumed she meant that Kenn couldn’t be here while she and Marc tried to rediscover their love.

  “That, I can’t do.”

  “And that’s why there will be no deals between us. You can’t give me what I want the most.”

  Adrian knew she was right–for now. But it wouldn’t always be so. He knew where she belonged. He would form his plans around that and her desires.

  “You can’t end it with him and move on?”

  Angela snorted, hand rising unconsciously to her split lip. “No.”

  She stepped into the steadily moving line, not
looking at him or the angry Marine now studying them from the center table. She and the witch both wanted to be certain about Adrian before she turned her gifts over, and she slipped gently into the leader’s thoughts, concentrating on appearing normal.

  Adrian felt like someone was squeezing his chest, and it was a struggle to talk and act like nothing was wrong. Her response was a confirmation as far as he was concerned. Now Adrian knew what his second-in-command had been hiding behind all his carefully thought out words and actions. Kenn was a woman beater. How long did he have before the herd found out, and he was forced to banish one of his own? He had put his complete faith in Kenn. These people would no longer trust his judgment. It was only a matter of time before it fell. All it would take would be for the truth to come out publicly or for Kenn to hit her again. The dream–these people–didn’t stand much of a chance if Angela was a battered woman.

  It took his full concentration not to show a response as she easily lit up a doorway between them. How strong was she?

  They won’t excuse it, if you do? she asked silently.

  Never, he answered. Most of these people were lucky to escape the draft trucks and then the gangs and slavers. They won’t go back to that, and I won’t condone it in any form.

  You have to for now. We’ve called a truce. Some time for thinking and choices. He’s fighting old demons, too, and I might be able to get him to let go, but it will take time.

  She felt Adrian’s despair, the tide of misery that was easily heavy enough to crush them all, and the witch jumped forward.

  Where’s your will now?

  I have enough will for all of you! he retorted bitterly. I’m not the problem.

  Angela noted his anger, the immediate denial that he had given up. I accept your rules and your hospitality, but Marc is my protection, and while we’ll be careful, I won’t sacrifice him. Nothing has to change for your people, except they’ll have a new awareness that some of us were weak before the war. It can all still work out, as long as Kenn sticks to your rules and our truce.

  Adrian forced himself to relax, knowing some people might read things in his tenseness. He brought a wall of titanium around his mind, attempting to shut her out. He had no doubt that she’d get through, was only curious as to how long it would take.

  Adrian concentrated on finding a doorway. They’d been talking on her connection, and he labored to open his own and appear normal to those who were witnessing but leaving him alone. The camp was sure he was feeling her out, but he was actually letting her check them out without so much pressure.

  Is there no chance for you two? he sent, almost breaking a sweat, and he closed the mental door with relief.

  That’s what he wants, expects, but I don’t think I can even try it.

  The defeated tone came through as clearly as if she’d spoken aloud, his wall nothing to her, and her obvious discontent bothered him as a leader. It made him feel like he already wasn’t doing right by her. Angela wanted him to stay out of it, he could feel that, and he would for now, but Adrian hoped she didn’t expect that to last. Fixing problems was in the fine print of his job description.

  Chapter Forty

  Faces and Places

  1

  Angela sat between Kenn and Adrian, more than a little uncomfortable as she drank her tea. The meal had been good, the garlic bread great, and she remained silent while the five men talked shop.

  She knew all their names, had exchanged friendly banter with them when they’d sat down. Adrian had taken the edge, directing her to his right, and Angela was careful to avoid making contact with anyone, not wanting Kenn to get angrier than he already was. These were Adrian’s closest men, his chain of command, and she was aware that her Marine was more powerful, somehow, more…

  Pissed, the old Angela filled in.

  She let out a sigh of agreement that she knew was heard by the observant men around her, but she couldn’t help it. The anger was rolling from Kenn, and while she knew everything she’d done and said today had made it worse, it had been Adrian’s introduction as they sat down (“You guys remember Angie, Charlie’s mom and our new doctor”) that was the straw pushing on the camel’s hump. She thought maybe Adrian had done it on purpose, and liked him for it even as part of her wished he’d said “Kenn’s wife” just to calm the Marine down. He was so mad!

  Pay attention! the witch ordered.

  “…here, either. Seth’s team took out a farm of hogs two miles northeast, said they were sick. They set poison baits.”

  Adrian added Neil’s words to his notebook and then glanced to Angela. “Feel like answering some questions about where you’ve been?”

  She felt Kenn tense and paled.

  “Just the basics. See or hear of any place safe to go?”

  “No,” she answered somberly. “It’s honestly better right here than any place we came through.”

  “Mutations?”

  She nodded, thinking the constant noise and people made it more like a crowded amusement park… Was that intentional?

  “About everywhere. We saw worms in Missouri and some kind of spider-cricket cross near Kirksville, but the big ants were in every state we passed through.”

  Adrian wrote it down, and Angela forced herself to keep going, sure he needed to know these things. “Ohio had a weird mold climbing up everything, even telephone poles, and aggressive rats, flooding. Most of Indiana was burnt up. Illinois…”

  She hesitated, dead eyes of her first kill flashing through her mind.

  Adrian shook his head when Kenn would have said something sharp.

  Angela blinked away the past. “Sorry. Illinois was ugly. I don’t think we saw one good thing in the whole state.” She went ridged with pain. “There was a rabbit, but I’m pretty sure it died too. Illinois and Nebraska were killing fields.”

  She gave him a very brief rundown of their battle with the wolves and fell silent, liking most of the thoughts floating around the table.

  Strong woman.

  Good thing she had the Wolfman.

  “What about radiation?”

  She answered him in detail, and was almost sorry when he was done and returned to talking business with his men. Her escort wasn’t mentioned.

  While they handled small issues, Angela swept the guards in view, recognizing patterns and weapons from her training with Marc. Seeing them was a comfort.

  Adrian noted how she stared at one part of the camp and stayed on it until she figured out how things worked before moving on. Like an Eagle would. How much real training had Marc been able to give her?

  “You gonna defend tomorrow?”

  Doug’s question drew Angela’s attention, and she observed Kenn.

  “Yeah. Be at the practice too, in case you want to know how much I’m gonna win by,” Kenn boasted.

  The table erupted with challenges, making it the place everyone else wanted to be.

  “In that case, excuse me while I go rig the targets.”

  They laughed again as Neil left.

  Angela felt their bond, and was surprised at her longing to be a regular at Adrian’s table, instead of just a guest. The sights and sounds of everyday life were bittersweet. She both loved and loathed the voices raised in conversations, the low mutters of curiosity and disapproval, the almost constant crunch of footsteps as the guards swept them and their surroundings for problems. It was worlds away from how she’d spent the last months, and every peal of mirth from the kids’ area sent fresh pain into Angela’s heart. If she had been with these people, she wouldn’t have lost her baby. Adrian would have been able to help. He was stronger than she was and Angela didn’t need the witch to mutter it. She already knew.

  Adrian (and others) noticed that she and Kenn didn’t speak to each other, didn’t even make eye contact. Adrian saw her wince at the can of Mountain Dew against her lip, and decided he would talk to Kenn. If he got the wrong answers, Adrian might do exactly what she wanted and tear apart his framework.

  “Ready?�
�� Adrian asked.

  “Sure.”

  He ignored Kenn’s grimace as Angela quickly got up and cleared her mess.

  Kenn took out his notebook, stalling. The more time alone with Adrian she had, the sooner the blond would figure it all out. “Will you be at the practice?”

  “We’ll be by, but I have a lot of stops left,” Adrian said. “I’m not shooting anyway, I’m officiating.”

  “John says the blonde’s all right for the most part. Severely underweight, dehydrated, exhausted. Says she’ll be out of the QZ by nightfall or so. Also said he’s taking his time on the men, especially the one she came in with.”

  Angela could hear the others at the table wondering why Kenn hadn’t mentioned that right away to ease Adrian’s mind.

  “Have you gotten his full yet?” Adrian asked.

  “No. They’re separated. I told the guards to come get me if they’re seen together, but she’s still out. John gave her another sedative.”

  “Collect his story first thing in the morning. The earlier the better.”

  “You want me to do it?” Kenn asked in surprised pleasure.

  “You’ve been with me enough times. Make sure I get the report.”

  “You know it.”

  To the camp, Adrian appeared to be firmly behind the Marine.

  Angela knew Adrian planned to have the new couple watched anyway, and maybe even talk to the new man himself. She was comforted a bit under all the misgivings, understanding that this was to remind Kenn of how much he was trusted.

  Kenn was indeed warmed by the public (in front of Angela) display of his high place, wanting her to be impressed.

  Angela was, but not with Kenn. Only with Adrian, who obviously knew how to handle her temperamental Marine.

  As they left, the men at the table (and enough of the eating people to start a rumor) noticed that she and Kenn hadn’t even acknowledged each other’s presence. There was clearly no love between them. Even couples who fought all the time had more warmth. And then there was the way she flinched or twitched every time someone got loud or moved too fast. Confused and getting even more suspicious, none of the sentries lingered, each wanting Kenn to feel their disapproval.