by Angela White
Marc found that hard to argue with, especially after overhearing their plotting. He didn’t disagree with Angie’s choice, only her methods.
“I have the same reservations,” Angela stated. “But I want this baby, Marc. There isn’t much I won’t do to keep her alive.”
The only life Marc valued more was hers or Charlie’s and he tugged her into his arms for a long hug. “Whatever you need, baby-cakes.”
Angela wiped her tears on his shirt, hoping he didn’t notice. He was so much better than she was. She didn’t deserve someone so good. She deserved to be with a terrible person…like Adrian.
Adrian studied the couple. Kendle was still sleeping blissfully in his tent, but Adrian had known Angela was close. It had drawn him from Kendle’s warmth in time to watch her take two life forces to heal herself. It was something he’d never thought to witness her do, and while it hurt him–he’d corrupted her–it also gave encouragement.
“She’s giving in to the dark side,” he joked to himself. “There’s hope.”
Adrian reluctantly returned to his tent, telling himself to be patient. She would try very hard to abide by the natural laws for a while now, to prove to herself that she hadn’t slipped that far. It would be a while yet before an opportunity to bond with her through these mistakes presented itself.
“I can wait,” Adrian crooned. “I’ll wait ‘til hell freezes over to have you and I won’t care if you’ve gone bad. Marc won’t take you that way, but I certainly will.”
Chapter Fifteen
Perception
1
“Go on and print it out,” Angela stated, folding the paper. She would go over it in detail later, especially the interview Cynthia had done. Everyone would want to read that a few times.
“You want me to change anything?” Cynthia asked, a bit nervously. Some of the wording wasn’t very supportive of the current leadership.
“Nope,” Angela answered. “Our people deserve the truth. You’ll give them that.”
“I’ll have it ready to hand out in the morning.”
“Good.”
Surprised, Cynthia left Angela to her stack of papers. She hadn’t expected the first draft of her paper to be approved. In fact, she hadn’t been certain any of her drafts would make it. She’d expected censorship and lies, not freedom to tell the truth.
“I’ve read that draft,” Greg stated, also sorting through stacks of papers. “It might cause some problems.”
Angela didn’t tell him that sometimes problems were useful. Cynthia would help her push these people back into American values and strength. It had built the country once and they needed it now, more than ever.
Angela opened her notebook. “I think I’m ready.”
Greg lifted the first sheet and they got on with the morning updates. “We had another group of refugees come in around dawn. Marc put them in Zone A.”
“The doctor’s home,” Angela stated, able to feel the displeasure coming from the medical bay. “Get him on the testing.”
Greg wrote it down and continued, “The ants are making a home in the secondary cave we chose–the one that connects to ours. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” Angela answered. “But keep them out of ours. Some of our sheep haven’t accepted them yet and sharing the cave with them during the snow drew a lot of complaints.”
“I’ll have Jennifer pass the message for them to stay out of sight for a while,” Greg offered.
“Good. She’ll do it without hurting feelings. Have an extra bin of scraps delivered to them each day. That’ll help them not feel shunned.”
Greg wasn’t sure about ants having emotions, but he didn’t bring it up. He was one of the people who didn’t care for the sight of the mutations, but he did recognize their usefulness.
“Have her ask them about helping take some of our heavier equipment down to the bottom levels,” Angela said suddenly, running with the new idea. “They can still carry a hundred times their own weight, so that could be very useful.”
“I agree,” Greg replied, stifling a protest about having to labor with the ants. If they could carry the heavy machinery down, that would be more than useful. It would be amazing.
“We’ve gone through the first week’s loads that came in. Shane found two wood gas generators at the lumberyard and Theo’s already using them. He said he’ll need a safe place to store the fuel we get from them.”
“That rocks!” Angela exclaimed. “Have it put in a truck by itself and I’ll send it out to locations that need it.”
Greg didn’t ask for details on that, knowing the answer wouldn’t be one he cared for. If Angela felt the need to stock locations for an emergency, it probably meant that trouble was already verified.
“Not always,” Angela tried to soothe. “Sometimes I’m just being careful.”
Greg still didn’t ask any questions. “We’re not uncovering much food. The stores have been cleaned out.”
“I expected that,” Angela told him. “We’ll do more rationing, quietly. Here’s a list of things for the cook and the garden crews.”
Greg read over it and approved of them. Subtly changing their diet to more bread-based items would slow their supply usage, though it wasn’t healthy. To combat that, Angela was having more vitamins passed out, and releasing their reserve of fish to be consumed now. It would add a couple weeks to their estimates. “No problems on these. Most people won’t notice.”
“Good. I hope it will only be that way for a month or so, and then we’ll have the second harvest from the garden. How are we on animals?”
“Not great,” he replied checking a sheet. “And we don’t have anyone free to go searching.”
“We’ll cover that next week. Gatherers become stockers and we’ll be able to spare a couple of teams then.”
“Good. Next is an update on the settlement in general.”
“Yes, where are we on everything? Any chance we’ll make the morning’s deadline?”
“None at all. The plumbing should be finished today, along with the power. Air is done and working well. A few reports of groans and creaks, but we’ve all agreed that’s normal, considering that we’re drilling, banging, and making plenty of noise while we sweat.” Greg scanned the sheet again. “I’d say we have a shot at twelve days, unless something happens to speed things up.”
Angela wasn’t worried over it. She’d known her deadline wasn’t reasonable, but the cold weather was coming and hurrying these people along had been necessary. “What about sanitation and escape routes?”
“The sanitation will be finished tomorrow, if we can get more septic equipment. We’re stuck waiting on loads to come in for that one. However, the escape routes have been reconned, mapped, and we have guards posted.”
“Excellent,” Angela praised. Exiting the cave through those damp bottom tunnels wouldn’t be pleasant and she hoped they didn’t need to use them.
“We do have full loads of wood, gravel, sand, and dirt. Very low on water and fuel.”
“That’ll be better after today,” Angela informed him. “The water from Neil’s run will hold us for the rest of the month. We also have a team collecting from the northern oil refinery now.”
“Okay. Next is…Eagle training. Marc left sheets for you to approve. Said Kenn and Shawn did well on them.”
“I’ll go over it later, with these other things,” she said, placing the papers into her book. “Who do I have meetings with today?”
Greg consulted his schedule. “They’re all covered. Marc handled the doctor, Samantha told Conner he isn’t getting in here yet, and that’s it.”
“Really?” Angela gushed. “I’ve got a free hour?”
Greg laughed at her innocent pleasure. She was cute when she wasn’t being the boss.
“Last thing I have is Tara–she asked for a different job. I told her we need hands in the caves and she agreed to try that.”
Angela’s demeanor turned cold. “Any word from her settling partners?”<
br />
“None that I’ve noticed,” Greg answered, scanning his papers again. “She follows the rules and stays out of the way.”
“And Missy?”
Greg gestured toward the kids’ area, where a large group of children and their chaperones were lined up to enjoy field trip day. Missy was with Leeann, and the two girls were chatting happily and ignoring everything else around them.
“Seems content enough.”
Angela didn’t comment, staring at the little girl. Missy’s gifts were incredible, but Angela was loathe to have her use them. She needed time to be a kid before being a descendant consumed her life.
Angela stood up, pocketing her notebook. “I’ll be on rounds.”
Greg nodded, thinking she looked better today than she had the entire time they’d been here. It was heartening, and Greg was whistling as he strolled to the front gate for a check-in with the sentries over Zone C. That was the only area he didn’t have an update on yet and at lunch, he wanted to have it ready if the boss asked for it.
Angela headed for the female tents, hoping to catch Hilda before she started her day of laboring in the caves. If Hilda were willing, she would submit to a new exam and discover if she and the baby were out of danger for a while. The life forces were capable of healing many things and Angela needed to hear that her horrible gambit had succeeded. She’d already given her soul to these people. She shouldn’t be required to sacrifice her unborn child, too.
2
Neil slid into the shower stall with a groan. “That feels good.”
A few stalls over, Jeremy chuckled. “Yeah, hot water will cause that reaction.”
Neil let it beat on his sore shoulders while he stared through the window. He and his team were going back out after lunch mess, to supervise the collection of water from the treatment plant. As he stared, he caught a glimpse of Samantha going by. Her pace wasn’t the confident stroll that Neil was used to and he frowned.
“Can I talk to you about something?” Neil asked, leaning against the stall.
“Sure,” Jeremy answered, not hearing the tone. He was busy ignoring his body while he washed.
“Have you, uh.” Neil flushed. “Have you and Samantha been… You know.”
Jeremy grimaced. So much for ignoring my needs. “No, not since the night we got here.”
Neil felt the heat rise at that memory, but the concern overruled it. “I haven’t either.”
Now Jeremy was the one frowning as he realized what Neil was getting at. “You think she’s hiding something or just not in the mood? We’ve all been pretty busy.”
“I’m not sure,” Neil confided. “And I’m out again after lunch, so I can’t watch her.”
“I can,” Jeremy offered, rinsing. “I will.”
Neil got a rag wet. “I know it’s only been a little over a week and being pregnant has to screw with things, but it isn’t normal for her. You know?”
“Yeah.” Now that it had been pointed out, Jeremy agreed. Samantha’s sexual appetite was new to them, but it had been voracious from the instant they’d started having contact. For her to go cold turkey wasn’t normal. “I can try to talk to her about it.”
“That’ll go well,” Neil snorted. “Let me know when you plan to do it so I can be there to sew you up.”
Jeremy snickered. “Okay, I’ll let you know if I spot anything we should be worried over.”
Neil hoped that would be enough. He already knew Samantha wasn’t going to want to talk to them about anything that might be wrong. “Do you think she’d talk to someone else? Like maybe Cynthia?”
Jeremy considered it. “They have gotten close. Maybe.”
“I might mention it to her before I leave,” Neil stated, soaping up. “You’ll have to deal with the fallout if Samantha figures out it came from us.”
“Yeah, but it’s worth it to make sure she’s okay.”
“I agree,” Neil said. “I’ll do that when I’m finished here.”
Jeremy didn’t tell Neil that he’d seen Cynthia stomping toward the gates, where the next teams were getting set to leave for the day’s labor out of camp. The reporter wasn’t happy and Jeremy was almost certain it was because Conner was working with them. He wasn’t supposed to have that information, but he’d overheard Samantha and Cynthia complaining about it. Jeremy wasn’t happy about the arrangement either, but he trusted Angela and if she thought the boy deserved a second chance, then he did.
Jeremy’s thoughts went to Adrian and he drew a mental line. That criminal didn’t deserve to be let in and Angela needed to be very careful about using him, even from a distance. If people thought she was conspiring with a traitor, she would lose leadership and that would be bad for everyone. Angela was a gifted leader and Safe Haven wouldn’t be the same without her.
Neil’s thoughts stayed on Samantha. He’d noticed more things off about her, other than the lack of sex and the weaker body language, but he was hesitant to explore them. Samantha had spent a lot of time in the west, on foot and in compounds that had been contaminated with radiation, and Neil was terrified she was one of the members trying to hide a disease diagnosis.
3
“He’ll have another nasty scar,” the doctor stated, keeping Kyle between him and Jennifer. “Nothing else wrong with him.”
“See?” Kyle complained. “I told you we didn’t need to come in.”
Jennifer didn’t rise to the bait. She’d insisted the doctor give Kyle a compete check-up and though neither man had been happy about it, she’d gotten her way.
“Your turn?” Kyle asked.
Jennifer scowled and the doctor shook his head.
“I have a lot of work today.”
“I’m spending the day with my sons after this.”
Kyle grinned at both of them. “Cowards.”
The doctor couldn’t deny it, but Jennifer slapped Kyle on the arm. “Stop it. You know he’s scared of me.”
“With good reason,” Kyle replied teasingly. “You’re a vicious killer.”
Kyle had meant it as a joke, but both of them wincing made him take it to the next level.
“I mean, we all know how terrified the babies and animals are of you.”
Jennifer recognized the joke, but the doctor took it as an insult.
“I’m not scared of her. I don’t like it when people get special treatment.”
Jennifer laughed, unable to help it. “Yeah, special.”
Kyle loved the sound of her laughter. “I think so.”
Drawn into their bond against his will, the doctor was forced to accept that the teenager also had a soft side. She was gentle with Kyle and with her daughter, who the doctor had double-checked for signs of abuse.
“You’ll never find any!” Jennifer snapped, angered at the mental accusation. “I’m capable of love and kindness. That may not be true of you!”
Jennifer left the medical tent, slamming the flap in a vain effort to express her outrage.
Kyle sighed. “You’ve gotta stop doing that. People here are tired of being prejudged.”
The doctor didn’t respond. He was busy trying to sooth his guilt for hurting Jennifer’s feelings. She shouldn’t have been in my mind. I hate that!
Kyle followed Jennifer, pulling his shirt on over the thick scar that should still be a gaping wound capable of taking his life. Kendle had done fast, amazing work, and Kyle knew that was part of the reason that Jennifer had insisted on the check-up. She didn’t trust Kendle.
“No, I don’t,” Jennifer admitted, letting go of her anger at the doctor in favor of her anger at Kendle. “She’s going to keep messing around with Marc and we’ll get the order to remove her. I don’t want that to happen.”
Kyle didn’t tell her that Adrian would be the one to get that order. Instead, he said, “We need to help her adjust and find someone–other than the traitor.”
Jennifer glanced at Kyle. “You have to forgive him sometime, you know. He’s not going anywhere.”
“I won�
�t,” Kyle stated. “Ever.”
Jennifer thought in time Kyle might be able to understand why Adrian had made those choices, but she agreed with the sentiment. What Adrian had done was awful and it had hurt his men more than anyone else. Those in his army had been believers.
“The puppy is almost trained and ready to come home with us,” Kyle told her, neatly switching the topic. “Next couple of weeks.”
“Nice! I haven’t played with him in a while.”
Safe Haven animals were put through a training program before being handed over to an owner and the owners had to know the methods and continue them. Angela had added it to Adrian’s training program not long after they’d had their dog uprising. So far, the few dogs here hadn’t shown any signs of following their fellow canines, but the Eagles were still watching for it. Jennifer was still going to the weekly training lessons, where she often scanned the animals as well.
“Can I bother you for a minute?”
Kyle and Jennifer rotated to find Sheila behind them. The former slave from Cesar’s camp had chosen to remain with the herd for Angela’s war and she’d been keeping her head down since then.
“What?” Jennifer asked rudely. She had little forgiveness for any of them.
Sheila flushed, hesitating, and Jennifer turned away. Reading her mind had barely taken an instant.
“No, I won’t,” Jennifer called over her shoulder. After finding Lilly with her baby, Jennifer had no sympathy. “My forgiveness isn’t for sale, so keep your offers.”
Kyle caught up to Jennifer, but he didn’t give her the expected lecture on forgiveness. He had his own demons to fight in that area.
4
Tonya spotted her target and beelined for the mess before she could lose her nerve. Dealing with other people was still hard for her sometimes.
Tonya dropped onto the bench across from Peggy, smiling. “I have something for you.”
Peggy, who was watching for Doug, frowned. “What?”
Tonya slid a large baggie over, glad she’d thought to put it in a sack first.
Peggy realized it was the next batch for the cancer drinks and allowed a small bit of approval to come through. “I’ll take care of it. Thank you.”