by Angela White
Furious, Kendle didn’t stop coming.
When the woman took aim on her, Kendle darted to the right and Tommy fired.
Kendle also fired, aiming for the remaining threat. She got the other female in the leg and fired again, double tapping. This time she hit the woman’s chest and her arm sprayed with blood. The gun dropped from her grip as she fell forward.
“Clear?”
“Clear.”
“Is everyone okay?”
As Kendle and Tommy untied their people and then retrieved the babies, they scanned the mess and the running machinery.
“Where are Clyde and his sons?”
“They took off out the back when they saw the women coming in,” Rita stated scornfully. “Didn’t even warn us. We found out there was a problem when the front door opened.”
Kendle knelt down by the chest-shot female who was gasping, close to death. “Why did you attack us?”
“Slaves…babies.”
“Did Dirce send you?”
“Our turn came…to serve the town.”
Kendle contemplated healing the local and pushed it away. These big women with their jumpers and Car Hart coats were okay with slavery. They’d had their second chance after the war and blown it.
“Rice is…dead,” the woman gasped out. “Dirce will come. Jerry told him everything.”
“Who is Jerry?” Carl asked in confusion as Tommy untied him.
“Jerry is Rice’s father-n-law,” Conner told them stuffily. “We were in the collateral room with him.”
“I guess he didn’t like Rice sending his grandkids off with strangers,” Tommy commented. “Too late to fix that now. He’ll have to come to Safe Haven if he really wants them.”
“Where are Tyler and Josh?” Kendle asked, dread forming a hard ball in the pit of her stomach.
“We haven’t seen them,” Ryan told her worriedly. “There was a lot of gunfire when they first came in. We got separated in these aisles and ran out of ammunition.”
Kendle followed the others out to search for their missing guards as a sense of failure settled onto her tired shoulders. I got them killed. I don’t want to play this game anymore.
6
Kendle glanced in the mirror, inspecting her team. Rita and the babies were out of her view in the rear of the van, hidden between various boxes and bags, but all of the team was in sight.
Those who survived, she amended guiltily. She saw it reflected in Tommy’s expression as they drove by the two crosses. They hadn’t been here when their men needed them. No one would forget this moment, this feeling of failure.
Kendle noted the injuries, the filthy, torn clothes, the hollow eyes and the cuts, the scrapes and bruises. This had been a rough trip.
“Everyone ready?” Kendle asked, pulling out of the driveway of the refinery. They had a full tank of fuel and five extra cans from two days of struggling to figure out how it all worked. They could have had more, but this was enough to get them home and that had been the goal. “All set?”
“Yes,” Ben answered, staring at the crosses in the mirror. “We can’t take any more of the wastelands right now. We want to go home.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
My Way
October 22nd, 2013
1
“Oh, my God.”
Kendle and her team stood on the snowy ledge, using their binoculars to view the mountain. The vultures overhead circled and cried, fighting for scraps even though the field of bodies stretched for miles across the valley.
“It’s the Mexicans,” Tommy pointed out through the late afternoon sunlight. “I see some flags and vehicles.”
“Anything moving?” Ben asked, following his training to the letter. He was above Tommy in skills like this, so he was guiding him through the process. When it came to anything weapon related, their positions were reversed.
“Flies.” Tents flapped in the wind, sounding hollow, empty in the winter wind, and under that, a low hum of insects.
Kendle controlled her guts. Even this far up, the smell was enough to choke her. Bodies, hundreds of them in various stages of decomposition, littered the valley at the bottom of the mountain.
“What about tunnels and roads?” Ben asked. He didn’t want to study it anymore. He’d been on duty when the sun rose. He’d stared at it for an hour before he’d woken the others.
“Looks like they blew the tunnels or had a lot of cave-ins…” Tommy lifted the binoculars. “All the roads are gone!”
“Avalanche, I’d guess,” Ben offered wearily. “We have no clear route up or in.”
“There’s quake damage on the ground,” Tommy examined and relayed. “A lot of it. Most of the tents are down and there are piles of rocks at the base… Wow. There are rocks everywhere. What do you suppose they planned to do with those?”
“There are also drifts in places between the destroyed tents,” Ben explained. “The sun melted some of it, leaving the stone. They didn’t gather the rocks. The rocks were…deposited.”
“Holy shit!” Ramer exclaimed, scowling. “That must have been some avalanche to leave so much rubble.”
“We felt the tremor the night before we left the refinery,” Ben reminded. “It hit harder here.”
Tommy handed the binoculars to Kendle, unable to take more of the scene. “I vote we wait for a while before going over, do some testing.”
“What makes you say that?” she asked, scanning the place where their entrance tunnel was supposed to be. The map Angela provided was very specific about where to be when they returned.
“The birds haven’t gotten to all the bodies,” Tommy muttered, fighting the need to gag. “Check out the skin.”
It took Kendle several minutes to find a body that hadn’t had its eyes eaten. When she finally did, stomach boiling, she immediately noticed the sores on the sun-drying hands and arms. “That’s what they had on the boat! That’s the sickness I had!”
“We have a counter in our gear,” Ryan remembered.
“Get it,” Tommy ordered. “Let’s also go inside until we know the levels are safe out here.”
The team quickly followed him into the cave, trying not to dwell on what this felt like, but the sense of being outside a graveyard was too obvious to miss.
2
“High,” Tommy read to them as he took a reading with the counter a little while later. “But not enough to kill them all like that.”
“Does that mean the levels are dropping?” Kendle asked, stirring a pot of oatmeal that no one had the stomach to eat. This cave was short and wide, with stone ledges that appeared to have been cut into shelves, but there hadn’t been any fresh signs of people and Kendle had approved it after Conner’s sweep. They had parked a mile away and hiked in through the darkness, something Kendle never wanted to have to do again.
“Maybe,” Ben replied, marking the numbers in his notebook. “I vote we wait until it’s at a safe level before we try to find a way in.”
“Are we going to?” Ramer asked, expression grim.
“What do you mean?” Scott asked snidely. “’Cause if you mean we don’t go in at all and bug out instead, I’ll punch you in your mouth!”
Ramer didn’t answer, but all of them felt his reluctance and understood. No one wanted to spend a week digging into a rotting tomb.
“We’ll wait,” Kendle decided when Tommy lifted a brow at her. “How long are we set for?”
“A week at least,” Ryan stated. “More if we ration.”
“We’ll scavenge as soon the levels are safe,” Tommy said.
No one answered, all thinking of what that would be like. The Mexicans would have food and gear they could collect from the bodies while trying not to get sick from any of the various health concerns in that valley right now.
Kendle glanced around, sensing their need, their grim outlook for the future. What would Angela do here? she asked, digging through her memories.
Well, she’s always been a bitch to me when I was at my
lowest and I’m still alive. Kendle stood up. “You’re Eagles in Adrian’s army. Act like it.”
Kendle marched away before any of them could discern her own doubts about the future. They would discover it together in the next few days or weeks. Until then, she would try to have faith that such a cruel leader was strong enough to keep her herd alive even under these impossible conditions.
Don’t let me down, Angie, Kendle begged silently. I’m almost out of tricks to keep these men alive.
3
“It’s been three days,” Carl complained from his bedroll as the sun set again. “The levels are almost twice as low as yesterday. It even says people can stand doses at these rates.”
Kendle scanned the tired, sad faces that had endured the last trio of sunrises with her.
“We’ll vote.”
There were enough relieved nods that she knew which way it would go. She took a deep breath. “I say we find out. Half of us.”
“Agreed.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
The vote was close enough that Kendle worried over hard feelings. She’d already gotten two of them killed. She didn’t want to add to that total.
Tommy gave her a questioning glance that made Kendle straighten her shoulders. I can do this. “Those who voted yes will head out at dawn. The rest will stay here until the levels are lower or until they decide to find another shelter or group.” Kendle looked at the twins in Rita’s lap. “You’ll care for them?”
“I’ll find them a home before I die,” Rita wheezed out. She still had the cold.
Kendle waved at the back of the cave, where they had plastic and tarps that kept them warm most of the time. Today’s temperatures had been good enough that they’d all enjoyed having the flap over the cave up for half an hour. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a hard day.”
Hours later, Kendle edged closer to Tommy’s heat without waking him, unable to sleep. The dread of dawn was thick in her gut. She had little faith left that the inside of that mountain would be any different than the outside.
Sighing, Kendle gave up the fight and rose. She tiptoed through the mass of bodies that kept the cave warm enough to sweat some nights, and took up a place near the flap. She pried open the hole they’d cut and taped for viewing, hoping to view some tiny flicker in the darkness to convince her it was worth the risk. Climbing that mountain alone would be dangerous, but they also had to discover a way in. She didn’t believe they could do either with the gear they had.
Kendle peered through the hole.
“There’s a light.”
Kendle’s whisper came through a distorted muffler of sleepy haze.
“Did she say there’s a light?”
“She saw something?”
Eagles flew from warm spots, tugging on jackets and boots.
Kendle moved for Tommy to view, praying that she really had observed a light, though she knew that she had.
“Top of the peak, to the left,” Tommy called, spinning away from the flap. “Someone’s alive in there!”
“Wait! Listen!”
Low rumbling echoed to them, causing everyone to tense.
“Quake?” Carl guessed nervously as the rumbling continued.
“No, there’s no shaking,” Kendle stated. She’d felt plenty of earthquakes while growing up.
“The rocks are moving.”
Men started to go out, but Tommy threw up a hand. “Coats!”
The team hurried to get into their gear.
Choosing to stay in this time and watch from here, Ramer called, “The light’s getting brighter…more rocks are moving… There’s a hole!”
The team went out, sharing the few night vision monoculars that they had.
“It’s them! They’re digging out!” Tommy cried, handing Kendle his monocular. “They survived!”
“All of them?” she asked tonelessly.
That brought the happiness to a halt as they took turns observing the yellow digger claw through the mountain. As each scoop of earth was brutally plowed aside, the team grew tenser. They’d had deaths. It was logical that Safe Haven would have suffered the same. Then there was the field of corpses at the foot of the mountain.
Who would emerge?
The sky lightened as the machinery worked, engines ringing across the valley that separated them. The dirt slid faster now as two machines cleared the sides, widening the exit…
The dozers shut off suddenly, leaving an ugly silence. Lights behind the hole became brighter…Four shadows appeared.
“Who is that?”
“I can’t tell with those spotlights glaring behind them.”
“That’s half of the council,” Kendle stated, able to feel them.
“Which half?” Conner murmured, trying to read them.
“Stop,” Kendle ordered. “We don’t know if they’re on alert or not. They might not know we’re here.”
Conner stopped trying to read them. He hadn’t thought of that, but she was right. Most descendants couldn’t read people through the stone or ground, so they might know someone was out here, but not who it was and think it was a threat.
“Switch on a radio, down low,” Tommy instructed, now the one with the best night vision monocular, the PBS-14. “I believe we’re being signaled.”
“Can you tell who it is yet?”
“No. They’re staying behind the lights. Too much glare for features.”
“Male or female?”
“Both. Two of each.”
“Could be anyone,” Kendle warned. “Let’s wait until we know for sure.” She knelt down in the flap, cold.
Ryan brought his radio to the group so they could all listen. As soon as he tuned it to their common channel, they heard the clicking.
“That’s our code,” Ben recognized. “Get a paper.”
It took the team a few minutes to translate the code coming over the radio. It repeated three times before the going silent.
Scott, who had gotten the last of it on the final transmission, blew out a sigh of relief. He grinned sheepishly at Tommy. “I’ve gotten rusty.”
Tommy chuckled. “Yeah, we all have. Get that decoded so we can send an answer. They’ll expect it quick if they’re still trying to verify who we are.”
Scott and Ben got on it, working together as they’d done many times on runs like these.
“It says stay here. Not safe.”
“That’s it?”
“Just to go quiet.”
Kendle sighed as the men around her groaned. “I guess we’re waiting again.”
Tommy motioned people in and re-secured the flap. It was getting cold inside again, but they had also been given orders to remain quiet.
“We got orders in Eagle code,” Ben stated as Tommy had the same thought. “I believe we’re the surprise force the bad guys aren’t expecting.”
“Wouldn’t the bad guys have seen us arrive?” Ramer asked worriedly.
“Not if they weren’t here yet,” Tommy pointed out. “Just in case, we’ll go to guards at all times.”
Kendle scanned her team, thinking they weren’t going to be much of a powerhouse like they were now. Low on food and ammo, out of fuel and missing two men, they were barely surviving themselves.
“She must be desperate if we’re the heroes,” Kendle commented. “And if she’s desperate, magic use is probably needed.” She looked at Conner, who was finally recovering from his cold. “If we stuff you with energy, can you fight?”
“I’ll fight anyway!” the boy swore furiously. “That’s my dad in there.” And Candy, he reflected, but wisely didn’t say so.
Kendle swept the Eagles who weren’t tensing as she’d expected. “Can you guys help us get ready to do this?”
Tommy nodded, saying, “We’ve been waiting for you to ask or let us know you needed it.”
“I really didn’t so far,” she explained. “But I don’t know what we’re facing here.”
“We don’t mind,” Ben offer
ed, smiling. “Angela sent us cookies last time we helped her this way.”
Kendle laughed, taking the hint. “Plain or chocolate chip? I have a Hershey bar and a jar of peanut butter stashed in that mountain. Adrian has them.”
“First one to reach Adrian gets to have the burnt ones!” Ryan called.
“No, I want those,” Tommy complained. “Li always saves them for me.”
“So that’s where the crusts keep going!” Scott accused, making everyone laugh.
Kendle joined in their amusement, but she felt the boiling stomach and the sweaty spine that told her she was about to have to make a choice that she didn’t want to. She had no idea what it was, but the sensation was so ugly that she shivered.
“You okay?” Tommy asked, taking her hand to start giving her his energy.
“No,” she denied. “Something bad just happened over there. Don’t make any noise. We’re not alone anymore.”
The team tensed, men hurrying to peek through the flap.
Tommy leaned down. “Take what you need.”
Kendle drew hard and fast, heart thumping. The wave of darkness sweeping over her heart was cold and hot at the same time. Her lids shut as the barrier to the future swung open.
“Hey, are–”
“Don’t,” Ben advised, stopping Ramer from touching her. “She’s busy right now. “
Ramer realized she was using her gift to search and retreated, watching in fascination. They hadn’t viewed signs of her power, or Conner’s, on this trip.
Kendle released Tommy, standing. “Hang on.” She went to her smaller kit, the one she used the least. In the bottom, she found the book she’d been reading shortly before they’d been carjacked. She flashed the cover at them. “Angela sent this with me.”
Tommy began chuckling, as did Ben.
“What?” she asked, confused.
“She sent the equipment with us,” Tommy explained, pointing to where their heavier gear was stacked. “There are five rappelling kits in there and a lot of rope.”
Kendle breathed a sigh of relief and then tensed again just as fast. “Get the lights out. I feel something coming.”