The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  “Good,” Angela replied. “I’m hungry. Someone feed me.”

  Angela acting like a dictator was perfect for the train populace, but Marc realized her power demonstration had caused fear among almost all of their new men. It was in their strained expressions and jerky movements.

  “I’m sorry for that,” Angela stated as Marc gently helped her to her feet as Adrian cleared a path to the door and vanished. “I’ll try to make it up to them on the way home. I found a chocolate factory. Candy bars mean sex now. We all know that.”

  Marc led her outside, where Eagles were already setting up the grill. “What about them?”

  Angela sighed tiredly. “Feed ‘em, send ‘em on. I don’t care.”

  “Do we have enough?” Marc asked, not wanting to waste their supplies on bad folks.

  “Their slaves are starving, Marc. I can sense it from here. Give them all food so I don’t have to send the witch out. She already hates these people.”

  Marc knew she wasn’t bluffing and quickly got her settled in the front of his truck with a drink and a plate. Billy and Kyle took up sentry places around the vehicle.

  Sonja watched all of this in jealous concern as she and her group waited nervously by their vehicles for permission to leave. It was a huge change from the arrogance they’d rolled in wearing. The concern wasn’t over Angela’s powers and her threats, or the promise she’d extracted with so little effort. The uneasiness was in how Angela’s subjects cared for her, even when scared. They didn’t fear for their lives. They feared for hers. It was humbling and infuriating to witness the treatment that Sonja had always longed for.

  Marc steeled himself, trying to act like a leader and not gloat. “We have herds and gardens. We gave to the refugees. We drop supplies in old campsites for those who come after us. We share. We compromise. And we get along.”

  “Or your mate kills everyone?” Sonja accused.

  “Yes.”

  Sonja waited for the offer, certain she had to accept it. The risk of offending Angela was too great.

  “She actually prefers that you leave,” Jennifer stated, still hovering near Marc. She wasn’t above gloating. “So do I.”

  Sonja bristled, but she did want the food. Angela’s soldiers were currently firing up grills and taking chunks of meat from coolers. Her own were always on rations. A full hamburger or steak hadn’t happened since the war.

  Marc motioned toward the small picnic area by the library. “We’re taking over that to get our people fed. I’d like you to keep your folks in line, but they can mingle without worry. We have nothing to hide.”

  Sonja already knew that. “No need with a ruler that powerful.”

  “Exactly,” Marc confirmed. He swallowed his anger at their odd ways, settling into the leader that his old fire team would have recognized. “Two rules. You stop any fights. You don’t plot. Those two things will draw Angie’s wrath.” Marc leaned forward a bit, confiding lowly, “She won’t stop this time. We’ll all die.”

  Not sure if Marc was bluffing, Sonja said nothing.

  Marc shrugged. “Just a friendly warning. She’s ill. She’s hurting. She lost something very precious to both of us. Don’t screw up here. She won’t give you another warning.”

  “We will eat with you and discuss things,” Sonja consented. She’d realized her mistake as soon as Angela had touched the Ghost. She had threatened Angela’s mate. Sonja wouldn’t risk offending the male again by refusing the meal, even if she weren’t secretly drooling over the smell of cooking meat.

  Marc motioned toward the picnic area. “Consider yourselves our honored guests.”

  Sonja went that way, not digging into Angela’s thoughts. She also wasn’t scanning anyone else around here, but the other new descendants were doing both.

  Angela wasn’t concerned. None of these here were strong enough to pry into her crypt, and even if they were, they wouldn’t detect much beyond rancid meat. That’s all she was now, deep inside–a wild dog that needed to be put down.

  4

  A short time later, Adrian settled into his chair in the cave, annoyed with the distance. He couldn’t stay and risk Angela’s plan being revealed through his weak mental shields. They had to hope no one would notice that he had disappeared. If someone commented on it, the instant hostile responses from the Eagles over his banishment should cover things.

  Adrian switched on the monitor and adjusted the channel to pick up the new camera that he’d just placed. Angela hadn’t told him to, but he couldn’t be away and wait patiently like a good dog. If things went crazy, he would return for her. Two miles on his bike went fast.

  Adrian was relieved to find both groups enjoying a meal together without obvious trouble when the static cleared, though Billy and Jax did seem to be exchanging glares. Everyone was still tense, but there were conversations taking place, so that was encouraging. Adrian peered at the background, where Eagles were helping Sonja’s men load coolers of meat and boxes of supplies. They were almost finished.

  Adrian searched for Jennifer and found the teenager still haunting Sonja’s every move. Adrian grinned. When Jennifer took over Safe Haven, peace would reign. Citizens would be as scared to act up under her as they were under Angela. Grief would drive Jennifer into being a strong leader.

  On the screen, Marc stood up, causing people to turn his way. Adrian could almost imagine the silence, the expectation and suspicion in equal amounts. Marc had to be nervous.

  Whatever he said was met with laughter and cheers, judging from reactions. Adrian moved toward the fire he’d left burning, not needing to witness Marc’s good moment. The man would have a lot of those, hopefully. His time leading Safe Haven would be short because Marc didn’t want the job. To be good in that position, the person had to be slightly obsessed with it, but the only thing Marc felt that way over was currently snoozing in his truck under a heavy guard. The let down from using that much energy was like the crash of a drug. She would need food and sleep when Marc brought her in.

  Adrian spent a few minutes considering what he wanted to do, then he got up and got busy. Watching the screen without being able to hear the conversations was maddening anyway. The next run like this would include a microphone.

  5

  “Angie?” Marc tapped lightly on the window. “We’re ready to roll.”

  Angela groggily fumbled for the lock button to let him in. She’d followed his instructions.

  Marc tried to smile at her. She looked rough. “You did well.”

  Angela leaned against the seat, not feeling much physically or emotionally. Everything was blurry.

  Marc climbed into the driver’s seat as her guards went to their vehicles. After Angela’s show of force, the meal had been peaceful. The new descendants had eaten three times as much as the Eagles.

  “Good,” Angela murmured.

  There’s a flash of soul, Marc judged. She’s glad they’re getting a great meal, and that their people won’t starve this week.

  Angela turned away. She had a few more miles before they would be out of Sonja’s range. Not that the train boss was scanning them. Sonja and her convoy were hightailing it to their train as fast as they could. Sonja was scared for her life.

  She should be, Jennifer sent. I want to go after her.

  Angela pretended to consider it, aware of Sonja’s stronger defenders still trying to listen. We made a deal. How would you justify that?

  She is a dangerous threat. She needs to be removed.

  I agree, but we cannot kill them all. Let her be. If she sticks to her word, so will I.

  Unable to take more of this farce, Angela dropped her shields and let the grayness claim her. In here, her mind was protected by the fog.

  Marc approved the choice. Sonja might not be scanning Angela, but he was. Sonja didn’t know her the way that he did.

  Let her be! Jennifer snapped, causing Marc to flinch at the accompanying sting. She needs peace. Another argument about your lost child will NOT help.

/>   Marc snapped down on a nasty reply. Jennifer was right. It was done. There was no going back, and accusations would make things worse.

  Angela sighed in relief, glad for the comfort of the fog, but even more grateful for Jennifer’s loyalty. She didn’t know if the teen was playing a perfect role or if her timing was just great, but it allowed Angela to sink the rest of the way into the darkness to sleep.

  Marc slowly shifted so that her head lolled against his shoulder and stayed there, supported. “I’ve got you, baby-cakes. I always will, even when I don’t agree with you.”

  Marc turned on the heat and drove toward the cave. A few hours with Adrian had already healed more of her physical injuries and brought part of her back mentally. A day or two more should do a lot and then he could hand this heavy burden over to the one who was meant to carry it.

  “You can’t go to Safe Haven yet.”

  Marc put the truck in park, frowning at Angie’s words. He’d thought she was still asleep as they approached the town at the bottom of Safe Haven Mountain.

  Angela didn’t move. “I had these plans running before everything happened, Marc. Please keep that in mind.”

  Before he could question, Adrian came out of the cave, gesturing.

  Seeing Angela wasn’t paying attention, Marc translated. “They went straight to the train. The coolers are being unloaded. It won’t be long.”

  Marc turned to Angie, angry. “What did you do?”

  “I handled the problem,” she replied, opening the door of the truck herself instead of waiting for someone to do it for her.

  Adrian was there to catch her when she stumbled in pain. “Sorry.” Adrian scooped her up and took her inside under angry mutters and glowers. Some of those men would never forgive him. His disapproval rating would always be double digits.

  Adrian settled her on the sleeping bag he’d placed on a stack of cushions and pillows from adjacent homes. It would hold her for a day or two. He quickly retreated to the ledge with his mess kit as Marc and three Eagles came into the cave.

  Angela pushed herself into a sitting position, unable to conceal the pain as she moved. Her body would take a long time to finish healing.

  Adrian dipped out a bowl of hot stew, shoving a spoon into it. He completed the meal with a tumbler of powdered milk and hurried to serve her.

  Marc watched without comment. He assumed the urgency was due to the energy that Angela had used to produce and control the fire.

  “Some of it,” Adrian confirmed, being careful not to touch her again. “The crash hasn’t really come yet. She’ll sleep for most of a day after this. We have to get a meal into her first.”

  Angela forced herself to pick at the stew. She had one more secret to get rid of, one more horror to reveal, and then she could sleep all she wanted.

  Jennifer entered the cave, going straight to Angela in support. She sent a clear glower around the cave, implying she wouldn’t tolerate Angela getting upset.

  Adrian was grateful. When Marc found out this last mission, he would want to scream, but Angie didn’t need that right now.

  “Tell me,” Marc ordered, sinking down in the chair that still held a blanket with Angela’s loose hair on it.

  “Are we clear?” Angela asked.

  “Yes,” Jennifer stated. “I can barely reach them from here. They aren’t on us now.”

  “I lied to Sonja,” Angela told Marc. “Show him.”

  Adrian switched the channel on the monitor.

  Marc stared at the trains in surprise. “We have a camera up?”

  “She had me do it first,” Adrian stated, trying for a slightly less fuzzy image. On the screen, there were dozens of people cooking, eating, cleaning themselves, and walking around. It seemed like a grateful group of survivors enjoying a moment without chaos.

  Angela set her bowl down. She couldn’t eat while they watched this or she would toss it right up. Bracing, she waited for the ugliness with another part of her soul dying.

  “How did you know for sure that she was going to attack?”

  “She didn’t ask for those tradeoff lessons, did she?”

  “What?”

  “The camping and solar knowledge she schmoozed you with upon first contact,” Angela answered tiredly. “She never brought it up.”

  “We didn’t ask for the rail information either,” Marc realized.

  Adrian nodded. Both sides had known that the other was lying. The ending could have been much worse.

  “What are we waiting for?” Marc asked a bit later. Most of the people on the screen had finished eating and walking, and were now in the train, out of view.

  “Five more minutes,” Angela predicted gravely.

  Marc heard the awful pain in her words and tried to get ready for it. Whatever this was, Adrian and Jennifer were both refusing to even think about it to give him a clue. Apparently, Angela wanted him blindsided.

  “If you had known, you would have talked me out of it,” Angela whispered, crying again. “But it had no good endings for Safe Haven. I hope you’ll believe that.”

  “I already know that’s true,” Marc replied, suddenly guessing what she’d done as the clues came together. When he got over the surprise and then the revulsion, Marc asked, “Will it get them all?”

  “Three full trains have now eaten,” Adrian grimly answered for her. “It cuts them by more than two thirds.”

  Marc couldn’t detect an error with those numbers, or the secrecy. After witnessing Sonja’s amazing ability to read him over so much distance, Marc could understand the need to keep this from him. What he hated was the deaths. Again, not all of those folks were bad.

  “No,” Angela agreed. “And many of the slaves will clean up the scraps from their owners and also perish.”

  “Wow.” Marc had been through this too many times to get enraged. “I thought you were wishing them well.”

  “I was.” Angela met his sarcasm with ugly bitterness. “I fed them a last meal, didn’t I?”

  Everyone winced, including Adrian.

  Marc turned to shout at the former leader, but he was drawn to the screen, where the poisoned meat was taking effect. The scene was gruesome. She’s never coming back, he thought, watching the panic, the pain. No one could come back after doing this.

  Behind him, Angela’s last hope went out.

  Chapter Nine

  Keep It Down

  1

  “What happens now?” Marc asked a bit later, still watching bodies fall. “If they attack, will we win?”

  “We aren’t going to give them time,” Jennifer answered, proving to Angela that the teen had known the plan.

  “They’ll dump the train of bodies for those jeeps and trucks,” Adrian explained when Marc glowered at the girl. “Sonja’s town will fall without her using her ability to hold them there. No more threat of descendants, no chances of American slavery.”

  “Sounds easy,” Marc stated with only a little rancor. He hated the choice, but Angela had made this plan before he had been passed leadership. She was following through.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “I’m in no shape to do anything more.”

  “We’ll take care it,” Marc soothed, hearing the exhaustion, the unbearable guilt that she was adding to her shoulders for this. As much as Marc wanted to say she was right to feel that way, he couldn’t. Sonja had been dangerous.

  “Thank you for understanding,” Angela murmured, energy fading fast. “Need to sleep. Make the call.”

  “I’ve got it covered, baby.” Ignoring the anger at his endearment, Adrian motioned toward the bedroll. “Get her to eat. If she doesn’t, she’ll wake up throwing up.”

  “She ate at the library,” Marc stated angrily.

  “She ditched it as soon as you turned your back,” Adrian informed the man. “She was afraid it would make her think about what was in the coolers.”

  “Asshole,” Angela muttered.

  “Get her to eat,” Adrian repeated.

  Jennif
er and Marc both went that way.

  Adrian hit the mike. “I have a message for Sonja. Did she survive?”

  The cave of Eagles waited for a reply, all watching the monitors except for Marc, who was determinedly spooning small bites of the stew into Angie’s mouth. Jennifer was alternating drinks of milk and encouraging words when Angela’s hands went to her stomach in pain.

  “This is Adrian Mitchel, contacting whatever snake is now leading those trains of dead. Someone had better answer,” Adrian warned, following Angela’s mental script. She was using the last of her energy for this.

  “We are here, you evil bastards!” the radio spat. “We will make you pay for this treachery!”

  Angela clasped Marc’s wrist and sent out a final wave of angry heat that flared over everyone in burning waves of warning.

  “Stop! Don’t send the fire! We will go!”

  Angela only let up when that surrender came, much to the discomfort of her own populace. Unfortunately, to capture all of the survivors, she’d had to send out a huge net that couldn’t exclude her group. That heat had also been felt in Safe Haven.

  “You have two hours to be gone. One day to be out of this state. One week to be out of this country. We’re watching. Go now and go fast.”

  Silence came for a moment, and then, “Should we leave our slaves?”

  “If you want to get out alive,” Adrian confirmed. “Don’t be late. Two, one and one.”

  “Copy.”

  Adrian cut the radio to conserve the battery, glancing toward Angela for approval.

  Adrian’s brows came together. She was already out, with the bowl half-full. He stood up. “Switch with me.”

  Jennifer started to get up and Marc waved her off. He took Adrian’s seat at the monitor with a glower that spoke volumes. He obviously hated all of this.

  Adrian settled down next to Angela and took her hand.

  The instant he touched her, Angela’s eyes snapped open. “I told you to never touch me!”

  Adrian grinned, scooping up a large bite. “Just have to motivate her.”

  Marc snickered against his will, soothed by her response. The jealousy was a part of him, a part of their upbringing where he’d been the only one looking out for her, but he was trying to crush it. Where they were all going from here, the drama couldn’t tag along. Pitcairn Island didn’t have room for it.