The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  TOC

  Survival

  Falling

  Burning

  Issues

  Four More

  Life and Death

  The Toll

  Lost Sheep

  Numbers

  Fighting Fate

  Sneaks

  Go West, Young Man

  The Alpha

  Picking Sides

  A Father’s Love

  More Questions Than Answers

  Nutcracker

  Survivor

  Bad Vibes

  On The Outside

  Digging Deep

  The Next Step

  Honor First

  The Onion Man

  Billy’s Run

  Can You Fight?

  Action!

  Cleanup

  Butterflies and Unicorns

  The Cold Hand of Fate

  Goodbye

  Someone’s Cow

  Stupid People

  Everything

  Moments Like This

  Don’t Screw This Up

  Crossing a Line

  Reality Sets In

  Hard and Quick

  The Past

  I Dare You

  Be Good Now

  …Extras

  Reason and Law

  When we emerged from that cursed mountain

  We had become hard-hearted

  We turned sinners away for any infraction

  Still mourning our dearly departed

  The light of Safe Haven continued to beckon

  Our people were protected

  But we lost all compassion

  For any trace of evil that we detected

  If they killed or stole

  We removed that disruption

  The only survivors welcomed

  Had souls without corruption

  Our population began to recover

  Our hearts began to thaw

  But we refused to forget the lessons learned

  There has to be reason and law

  Without that,

  Societies always fall

  Chapter One

  Survival

  1

  “We will have the witch!”

  Some of Mikel’s men cheered. The rest were dead or screaming for help.

  Inside the mountain, shouts began to fade into groans and tears…and then silence.

  “Why is it so quiet now?” Tracy wiped away tears as she and Charlie burrowed deeper beneath the cushion of the clothes pile.

  “The smoke.” Charlie kept digging downward. He was trying to reach the bottom with his feet. The ledge had broken off and slid during the quake, but he didn’t know how far it had fallen or how they had landed. For all he knew, they were dangling. The darkness was smothering. He couldn’t even smell anything but laundry–some of it cleaned, most of it not.

  “We have to help them!” Tracy cried harder, but she didn’t resist when Charlie pulled her boot, dragging her down.

  Around them, the laundry was moving. The Indians had joined the teen as the cave fell apart, but there hadn’t been time to formulate a plan.

  Natoli stayed on Tracy’s right as Charlie took them through the maze of laundry and stone. His men surrounded the couple, as he’d instructed them to do before they’d rejoined Safe Haven. Marc had told Natoli of his fears for the future, of the deaths and lives that had been promised. Natoli had vowed to protect Marc’s heart so that the warrior could fight for all people. Now, Natoli was fulfilling that vow.

  Charlie was just glad they weren’t alone. He was in the lead for the first time and it was terrifying.

  Charlie stopped as his foot hit something hard, hands fumbling for the light on his belt. He tried not to think about everything that might be on top of them or how hard it was to breathe down here. They had survived the quake. That had been his only goal when he’d brought Tracy to the laundry area. Now, he had to keep them alive in the aftermath.

  Around them, others were coming to the same realizations. Through the broken stone and shifting dangers, battered survivors began to emerge.

  2

  Adrian groaned as the weight shifted off his shoulder. The pain in that arm was bad enough to convince him he was alive, but there was too much debris on him to move yet. Adrian remembered shoving Marc forward and the ceiling collapsing on them, but nothing else. He assumed he had been knocked out. The buzzing ears and roiling guts upheld that theory. He groaned again.

  “I heard someone!”

  Adrian kept his lids closed as more debris was cleared from his body. He hurt everywhere. Sharp rocks were digging into his arms and legs, and there was a warm heat from below making him sweat. That’s a body. I’m not sure if it’s breathing.

  “It’s Adrian! Grab that end. Lift on three. Ready?”

  Adrian screamed as the weight increased and then it was gone. He coughed as smoke and dust rushed into his lungs, and then screamed again as he was dragged free of the rubble by his arms. The pain in his shoulder was excruciating.

  As his own cry faded, Adrian could hear others begging for help, but not as many as it should be. He struggled to clear his mind, dazed. Something crawled across his bad hand and scurried into the darkness. Adrian felt it as a vague sensation dulled by the stabbing throbs in his arm and shoulder.

  “There’s another body here! Keep digging!”

  Adrian was left alone as the rescuers ran to the debris pile. He stilled, listening to coughs and shouts, to tears and groans. Light by a lot, he thought, ears buzzing in loud confusion.

  There’s a fire! Angela thundered. Get up! She and Cody were trapped in the storage chamber on the same level as Adrian, but the fire was more important.

  Adrian shoved into a sitting position, arm useless except in the flaring, ugly pain that came each time he tried to move it.

  Dislocated. Angela didn’t sense anything else wrong with him that was serious, but the arm was enough to keep him from helping. You can’t climb like that. Damn!

  Adrian forced his hurting body to stand on legs that shook, scanning the new, more dangerous environment.

  There! He stumbled over rocks, bodies, and wooden beams, lurching toward the entrance to the tunnel where he’d been camped in exile before the Mexicans had found it.

  This will hurt. Adrian clenched his teeth. Go away.

  He felt Angela withdraw as he lurched forward. Adrian slammed his shoulder into the unmovable wall and popped the humerus back into the glenoid.

  “What is he doing?” Theo had paused in shifting a large stone, drawn by Adrian’s chilling shout.

  “Fixing himself.” Greg’s tone matched the roughness of the debris he flung aside. “I see a Colt. This is Marc!”

  The digging resumed with more energy.

  Adrian fumbled for the light on his belt. He shined it upward with his good hand, blinking at the waves of falling dust. The sight was so awful that Adrian needed the throbbing shoulder, along with every cut and bruise, to prove that this was happening. Safe Haven had been destroyed.

  They’ll all be dead if you don’t get that fire out!

  Adrian staggered backward and fell, startled at Angela’s mental shout. He groaned, trying to focus. Everything is so blurry…

  Hurry!

  Give me a minute!

  We don’t have it. Smoke has already reached the top floor. Everyone up there is dying. Can’t you feel them?

  Adrian managed to get on his feet, but his flashlight had rolled too close to a crevice for him to reach without his balance. He staggered toward the ladder instead, blinking in dull comprehension. The ladder was there. Bodies were hanging from it, sprawled below it... He stiffened in pain and then puked.

  Breathe. Breathe. Angela shoved deep into his mind, to where their connection was glowing brightly. You can do this. I believe in you. I always have. Now, hurry!

  Adrian wiped his mouth on his gritty sleeve and began to climb the ladder. His painful movements became a way to stay alert as he fought bodies for space w
hile trying not to inhale the smoke wafting downward.

  As he reached the level above, Adrian yanked his shirt up, wishing he had time to stop and wet his bandana. Then he remembered that he had been getting ready for bed and didn’t have either of those things. All he had was his jeans, boots, jacket, and belts–tool and gun. Those last two he even slept with. Good thing, he praised, taking out his spare flashlight. After this, he was down to the headlamp. He didn’t want to try using it yet. The buttons were little and his hands were shaking. He might drop it. That would be worse than the dim illumination from his small flashlight.

  Far above, Adrian saw a shadow illuminated by an orange glow. The man hefted himself onto the level with the fire and vanished. Adrian realized Angela was telling others of the fire and directing them too.

  “Right behind you!” The wood vibrated as Greg climbed the ladder. Theo and Debra were taking care of Marc, but so far, there were no other survivors on the bottom level to help. Angela was telling Greg about kids trapped by a mess fire and he was determined to save everyone he could.

  “Adrian!” Kyle shouted from his right. “Can you tie off this rope?”

  Adrian missed the rope that Kyle threw, but it caught on wooden debris, allowing him to fumble for the end of it. As he tied it to the sturdiest thing he could find–a heavy-duty hitch that had been used to tie up their larger animals for milking–fresh screams sounded from above them.

  “Going up!” Adrian winced at the awful pain, cradling his head. His hands came away bloody, but there wasn’t time to worry over it. He climbed as Kyle anchored the rope to the other end of the ledge and began inching Jennifer across the gap. There was a very narrow ledge, but no room to even glance down or they would throw themselves off balance. Hopefully the rope would keep them from falling.

  Greg spotted a familiar red canister under the debris. He dug it out, ecstatic to locate a second extinguisher below it. Lungs starting to hurt, Greg used the rope from his belt to tie them together. The panic from the level above him increased while he worked.

  “We need more hands in the mess!”

  “We need something to put out the fire!”

  “Where are all the extinguishers?!”

  “I found two!” Greg pulled himself up the ladder, extinguishers clanking together against his chest. He’d put them on like a necklace.

  Adrian took one and put it inside his tucked-in shirt so that he had both hands free.

  Greg did the same and followed. Both men were aware of heavy coughing, but the lack of people helping worried them more. In a camp of over five hundred, only having a dozen workers active was horrifying.

  “Someone got a light on.” Greg was sweating so much that his shirt was soaked.

  Adrian grunted. “It’s not a light.” The climb was clearing the fog and sending misery in. There were bodies on every floor he’d reached so far. How many have we lost?

  Greg climbed faster as he understood what Adrian meant. The top levels were bright, meaning it was a large blaze. Two extinguishers won’t be enough, Greg thought, pulling himself onto what remained of the security and medical level. He shined his light right and left, spotting a few survivors on both sides. None of them appeared to need immediate help.

  The two men hurried to the next ladder. Half of it was gone, but there was a rope hanging down from where someone else had already climbed up.

  “That was Adrian and Greg!” Morgan had stood up when the flashlights had shined through the dusty residence tunnel. “They’re going to the fire.” Morgan and Kenn had been together when the floor fell out, taking friends and family with it.

  “Good.” Kenn tied the rope to his waist and then to the outcropping that had split and started the huge crevice. He was glad he’d been on duty and was wearing full gear. “We can’t reach them that way. We have to go down and get over to the ladder.”

  Morgan knew he was right. The tiny ledge on either side wasn’t going to hold their weight and there was no way they could jump the 20-foot gap in the middle.

  Next to them, Neil was still staring at the hole where Jeremy had jumped. He hadn’t moved yet.

  Kenn nudged Neil’s shoulder. “We’re going down there. You want on?”

  Neil took the unused rope, but only held it. The gears in his mind had ground to a slow crawl.

  Kenn tied it to Neil and then to a different outcropping that he hoped would hold. He understood Neil’s dazed response. If not for hearing Tonya’s voice in the medical bay, Kenn might have been experiencing the same emotion. He held great sympathy for Neil.

  Neil followed Kenn to the edge of the gap, but he didn’t go first. He squatted at a pile of rubble and began digging through it, hoping he had the right place. They’d kept medical supplies on every level, but this floor had also held the medical bay, so the majority of their stocks were here somewhere.

  “Come on.” Kenn lowered himself into the hole with hands that protested the lack of gloves. Got softer. Kenn reached down with his leg to find a place that might support his weight. He found something that felt sturdy and tested it.

  Kenn hefted himself up as the hard object rocked and vanished, breathing rough.

  A shattering crash brought Neil to the hole. “Be careful!”

  Nose burning from all the smoke, Kenn nodded toward the rope he had tied off for Neil. “I was able to see down five foot. It’s clear. I’m dropping.”

  Neil had found the shelf of medical kits. He slung two of them around his neck and then shined the light as Kenn began to descend, using his own rope. It would have been incredible to watch if not for the situation.

  “Okay. Come on down.”

  Now that he’d observed how it was done, Neil tried to copy it. He lowered himself, arms straining. Sweat broke out on his neck from the heat as his lower body descended into the cool darkness to search for solid ground. He hadn’t realized it was hot and bright up there. Down here, it was pitch black and cool. And quiet, he noticed, ears working overtime as his headlamp flickered off bodies, rubble, equipment that was mangled, and shards of thick plastic that had been crushed. Water tanks, he thought, heart pounding.

  Kenn had stopped a bit below, feet crunching. “Careful man, it’s a maze.”

  Neil’s foot hit crushed plastic and slipped.

  Kenn grabbed his arm, guiding him down. He didn’t tell Neil what he’d observed. The man would view it for himself any second now.

  Neil’s light blurred as he caught his balance, but it was enough to show him that the entire rubble field was made up of those huge plastic shards. Across the glittery field of danger, Samantha sat with her knees to her chest. Neil thought he could hear her breathing, but he wasn’t sure. She was covered in dust and dark shadows.

  Kenn took Neil’s arm before he shined the light on her. “Easy man. If she gets up to run to us, it might all fall.”

  Neil blanched, lowering his light.

  “There’s something else.” Kenn lowered his voice. “She won’t want to leave the body. You’ll have to make her.”

  Neil shined his light on Samantha anyway now, mind blanking. Body?

  Neil hadn’t seen Jeremy at first because his body was covered in blood, blending in with the broken cave walls. Jeremy had landed on one of the plastic tanks. He was still hanging there. Oh, God!

  “Neil?”

  Neil swallowed his horror. “Don’t move, Sam! Please, don’t move!”

  “He knew this mountain would kill him.” Sam choked up. “And I made him come here!”

  Samantha’s sobs were a torment to the men, but all they could do was listen and curse fate. Without help and equipment, they couldn’t reach her.

  Kenn, aware of Morgan joining them, stepped and then slid toward the only exit he could view with his light. It was also lined in plastic shards, but most of them had been crushed and were covered in large pieces of debris that Kenn identified as stone from the radio room. It had been darker than the outer walls.

  Contemplating ways to rescue
Samantha, Neil was barely aware when they’d gone.

  Across the dark and bloody debris field, Samantha continued to cry.

  3

  Sweating and grunting, Kenn and Morgan removed the last two large stones so they could ease through the debris piles to reach the bottom level.

  “We cleared a hole with those two.” Morgan pointed.

  Kenn shined his light and tried hard to force a grin. “Can we give you a lift?”

  Angela wanted to reward his effort at lighthearted calm, but the best she could manage was, “Get us out of here, grunt.”

  The ceiling of the storage chamber had cracked and fallen in. She and Cody had cowered under a shelf and hoped they weren’t hit. Afterward, she hadn’t been strong enough to stack the broken stones for a ladder to get out.

  She held Cody up so that Kenn could reach the scared boy’s arms, but Angela wasn’t in any shape to be pulled up that way. Some of her stitches were still healing the wounds and hadn’t dissolved yet. She knew that by the way they pinched as she held Cody up. Angela chose to climb. She wouldn’t have been able to do it with Cody on her back yet, but she could handle herself.

  Kenn watched as she came up the debris pile and then the wall. As soon as she was in range, he planned to grab her.

  As Angela neared the top, she chose the wrong grip. The small ledge crumbled under her fingers, sending her flailing…

  Kenn snatched the front of her shirt and jerked her out of the hole.

  Angela screamed but didn’t struggle. When Kenn set her down, she clutched her stomach, trying not to puke.

  Are you okay?! Adrian demanded. His guts had clenched into a nasty cramp that had stolen his breath.

  “Fine. Keep going,” Angela interrupted Kenn’s apologies. “We’re even.”

  Kenn grinned, but he’d never felt less amused. “Nice. Let’s go.”

  Kenn guided them through the slippery debris, with Morgan bringing up the rear. Morgan was carrying Cody, who was staring toward the ladder with tears rolling down his dirty cheeks.

  Morgan shielded the boy’s eyes as they joined Debra and Theo at the bottom of the ladder.