Joe pulled his gun and chased after him. He picked up speed when he heard the truck door shut and the engine turn over. As Joe arrived to his transportation, the young dark haired boy inside tried diligently to drive, but only jerked the vehicle about. Putting his gun away, Joe marched to the truck. “Get the hell out of there, your gonna drop my transmission.”
The young man, no older than nineteen, slid in fear of Joe across the bench seat to the passenger’s door. He stopped, petrified when he saw Greg blocking the way. He huffed in fright, sweat poured down his dirty face.
Joe opened up the truck door. “Calm down. We aren’t gonna hurt you. What happened here?”
The young man’s head dropped to the dashboard and he started to cry.
^^^^
Fingers slightly dusty from the crumbs of the preserved crackers, Ellen brushed them off and looked up when Frank finally emerged from the store.
“Got them.” Frank immediately knelt before her.
“I’m sorry about this, Frank.” She felt him place on her, socks then tennis shoes.
“No, it’s all right. I wished I would have thought about having to do all this walking. I forgot you didn’t have good shoes with you.” He began to tie them on. “And I grabbed some clothes for you. I . . Uh . . kinda forgot about your clothes.” He cringed, waiting for the yell.
“That’s all right. We should still be able to find something here and there for me.” She smiled at him, then her smile dropped when she looked at what he got. “Green? I hate green.”
“You need green. It’s either that or the military pants and shirt.” Frank set her foot down. “There, all tied, stand up, what do you think?”
Ellen stood up in the black high tops, her feet sunk in comfort. “Whoa. These are nice.”
“Too big?” Frank asked then watched Ellen indicate to him only a little. “You know these had a price tag of two-hundred bucks. They ought to be comfortable.” He lifted the gear over his shoulder. “You ready?”
“Yep.” She really wanted to sit on that bench a bit longer, but realized they had to move on. At least Frank kept the pace slow, only occasionally she did have to tell him to slow down. But Ellen knew his mind was elsewhere. He barely spoke as they walked, keeping his eyes peered straight ahead. Frank treated it like they were on a mission, a detail. He knew where they had to be and when, and he didn’t want to stop until he got there.
^^^^
His name was Michael and he was barely nineteen. He had stopped shaking and finally felt safe sitting with Joe and Greg, smoking their cigarettes, one after another. “And I just . .. I just hid.” Michael stated.
Joe whistled. “Smart move. You guys tried to defend yourselves. You were outnumbered.” He laid a fatherly hand on the boy’s back. “How many were in your town.”
“Two hundred. Give or take a few.”
Greg quickly looked at Joe then to Michael. “There aren’t two hundred bodies out there. Did some of your people run.”
“No.” Michael shook his head. “The ones that fought got killed. Everyone else they loaded in the trucks and took.”
“Took?” Joe questioned in shock. “They took over a hundred people. Who took them?”
“Military.”
Joe thought it was the trauma talking. “Son, there is no more military.”
Again Michael shook his head adamantly. “No, sir. They were military. Came in with their military trucks, guns, uniforms with a ‘CS’ on the shoulder. Soldiers all the way.”
Joe didn’t know how to react or what to say. The Beginnings men had never run into something like what had happened in the small town. It was new. There was a new band of survivors out there. Dressing like soldiers, acting like soldiers, and wiping out towns like the savages. Michael couldn’t give a good count as to how many. But Joe knew by the number of residents taken and killed, the number of soldiers had to be frighteningly high.
^^^^
The noise level in Dean’s living room was astronomical, but he didn’t seem to mind. More like, he really didn’t seem to care. Rambunctious twins jumping from the couch to Josh, to the stairs. Katie, Andrea’s seven year daughter, joining in the screaming frenzy contest, pummeling herself in wrestling moves onto Josh’s back trying desperately with Alexandra to bring Josh and Billy down. It was a major tag-team competition and Dean failed to notice.
Little Brian slept comfortably on his chest as Dean sprawled out on the couch. His head on a pillow, one knee up, the other leg stretched forward. Massive amounts of computer paper all around, nearly burying himself and Brian.. He read from a sheet and the long line of papers still connected, dangled about on the floor.
“Daddy.” Alexandra ran up to him, red faced and out of breath.
“Yes.” Dean adjusted his glasses, never taking his eyes off the papers he was engrossed in.
“Billy and Josh are cheating. Can I cheat too?
“Sure whatever.” Dean flipped to the next page, then rested his hand on Brian’s back.
Alex ran off full speed to Billy. “Daddy said I can cheat.” Before she knew it she was on the floor being pinned again. Her tiny meek voice bellowing out like Ellen’s. “Assholes!”
“Daddy, Alex swore.” Billy told.
“Alex, don’t swear.” Dean shook his head as he read. He never heard the children call out loudly and with excitement ‘Aunt Andrea!’ when Andrea walked in.
“Dean!” Andrea shouted, standing over him. “I know you aren’t dead. I can hear the noise a block away.”
“What noise?” Dean peered up at her.
“This noise.” She held her hand back and showed Dean. The level was unbearable. Andrea took charge. “All of you shut up right now. Go up stairs.” She rubbed her forehead. “You said you were watching my daughter for me.”
“I was watching her.” Dean sat up with the papers, still clutching Brian. “Andrea you have to hear . . .”
“Look at this house Dean. You are usually so meticulous.”
“I’ll clean up later. I’m reading this. You have to hear this.”
“What?” Andrea sat next to him, she reached over and touched the sleeping baby. “Is he being good for you?”
“The best.” Dean pressed his lips to Brian’s head. “He’s such a good baby . . . huh Brian?”
“Dean.” Andrea gave that Andrea-mother-look. “Don’t get too used to him. He isn’t yours.” She paused then looked at him. “He isn’t yours, is he?”
“Hmm.” Dean stood up and walked Brian to the cradle and set him down. “You know how I was having so much trouble figuring out what the formulas were on those disks?”
“Yes. And what is all this?” She reached for the long line of papers.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Those formulas, weren’t formulas. It was information coded. That blue book Josh carries, isn’t a book, it held the program that decoded at all. And this . . . this is all the information from one disk only.”
Andrea gasped as she lifted it. “No wonder you’re so engrossed.”
“I want to read as much as I can. Learn as much as I can. This basically is info about the Garfield Project and how it came to be part of the Caceres Society. It’s says basically, Beginnings is a center point. I don’t know what that means. I’ll get to it. It mentioned about it also being the basis. Farming, industry. And according to what I can gather from their game plan. We’ve done that part of their plan for them.” Dean placed down his stack. “The rest of it is pretty useless information.” Standing up Dean stretched as he looked upon his living room. “Oh my God, what happened to my house?”
^^^^
It felt good to finally stop. Ellen was wondering when Frank would. She could hear him walking about in the deep wooded area surrounding them. He had set up the camp for them. The two sleeping bags rolled out side by side. A very small fire lit at her feet.. Ellen poked a stick into it, playing with it, just like Frank told her not to. Her head jolted to the sound of footsteps.
“I
t’s me.” Frank sat down next to her, kissing her on the cheek as he did. He took the twig, made sure the end wasn’t smoldering and tossed it. “I don’t want this fire spotted. And don’t get up in the middle of the night to run around. I have traps set up all over the place so . . .”
“Frank.” Ellen brought her hand to his mouth. “Can we just sit here together. Please. I haven’t seen you in days and when I do, I feel like I’m in a platoon with you.”
Frank grabbed her hand. “I’m sorry. I just want to make sure you’re protected.”
“You’re doing a good job.” Ellen brought her knees close to her and tucked her hair behind her ears. “So . . . you have to tell me what made you come and get me. And early too.”
“It wasn’t exactly just me. I mean I had this bad feeling, and I wanted to get down here, but the other man in your life gave me that final push.”
“The other man?”
“Dean. He helped me get all this shit together. He helped me plan this whole escape. Not that I couldn’t have done it on my own mind you. But he was a big help.” Frank picked up a stone and tossed it. “He was worried. He, uh, still cares about you.” Frank looked at her. “And wipe that gloating smile off your face.”
“I’m not smiling because of Dean. I’m smiling because people care. Miguel for example. I always thought Miguel only tolerated me. But when they did the things they did to me. He helped me out. He was really . . .”
“What did they do to you, El?” Frank asked.
“I’d rather not talk about it right now. Not tonight.” Ellen took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m not bringing any of this up. Can you help me get undressed please. My shoulder is still bad.”
Frank grasped the bottom of her tee shirt, helping her out of it. His eyes widened when he set his vision upon her bra. Her shirt dropped from his hand.
“What’s wrong?” Ellen asked.
“This is blood.” He touched her bra. The brown color of dried blood made a patch on the left side of her white bra. “Is this your blood?”
Ellen’s head dropped, she lifted her eyes to him, then grabbed her shirt pulling it to her. “Let’s just get to sleep.
“El, don’t do this. What happened to your breast?” He slowly reached his hand to the edge of her bra to pull it out.
“Stop.” Ellen smacked his hand away.
“What did they do to you? That’s a lot of blood.”
“Nothing, Frank.”
“That’s not nothing. What happened to . . .”
“Two guards . . . tried . . . to rape me.” Ellen stood up and walked away a few feet. “And one of them bit me pretty bad.” She tried to control herself, looking out.
Frank felt a singeing, a tingling knot form in his gut, it burned from his stomach to his throat. With a deep breath, trying so hard to be in control, he lifted himself to stand, and slowly walked over to her. He bit his bottom lip, and with half closed eyes, and clenching jaw, he slipped the shoulder strap from her, letting the garment fall from her beast and showing her injury. With a loud emotional exhale he gently brought his finger tips to just above the bruising and still slightly bleeding open wound that surrounded her nipple. “Oh my God.” He pulled her close to him, holding back his rage. “I am so sorry. I’m sorry.” He buried his lips on her head.
“I just want to forget about this.” Ellen stepped from him, pulling her strap back.
“How could they do this to you?” Frank’s words cracked with his anger and sadness for her. “Where was Miguel?”
“They had him drugged. There was nothing he could do. He didn’t even know what happened until they brought me back.” She walked near him. “He felt bad, really bad. He took care of me. Washed me, carried me.”
Frank cringed in pain listening to her, his head tilted, as he kept his eyes closed. “I let this happen.”
“No. No one did.” Ellen grabbed his clenching fist. “Just know . . . I fought with everything I had.” She brought her body against his. “Please let’s just not talk about this. Please.”
Slowly he opened his eyes. It hurt him more than anything to see her and the battle scars she had. “I love you. More than life. You know that?”
Ellen nodded, then took the shirt she had in her hand and lifted it over her head.
Frank watched her place the shirt back on. He knew it would cover her body, but it would never be able to cover the truth of everything Ellen had gone through.
^^^^
After knocking once in fear, Joanna entered George’s sleeping quarters following his gruff ‘yeah.’ Nervously she shut the door. “I can’t wait until communications are in full swing.” She let out a breath. “Lots of static but there. Radio transmission went through. Three more regiments are on their way from New Mexico.”
“Good.” George nodded as he sat at a table. “How are things down there?”
“Moving along.” Joanna stated. “Survivors sweeps are, well, troublesome, but we’ll get the hang of it. We’re almost ready to branch out. Begin moving onward with everything at the other sites. I just wish we had Beginnings. We need the food supply.”
“Don’t worry about it.” George stated. “Besides the stockpile down here, I should be back there shortly. No more dropping excess off at the savage camps. My bird will drop it off to you guys.”
“When do you think they’ll come for you?” Joanna asked.
“Probably soon. That’s why I want things to start getting packed up now, ready to move. I don’t want them coming here while we still are. If they don’t show back up, I’ll go to them. Use the ‘I made my escape’ story.”
“Are you sure it will be safe to do that?” With concern Joanna questioned.
“I have to. I have to maintain control of Beginnings, you know how vital a center point that is. And I have to go back to take out Joe.”
“We’ll have that already for you whenever you leave. The doses are strong, but if you don’t re-inject him every week, he’ll come out of it and you’ll be busted.”
“I’d like to just kill the know-it-all-Hitler-son-of-a-bitch.” George slammed his hand down and stood up. “But I can’t give myself away.” He ran his hand over his hair. “You’re sure it’ll work?”
“Yes. It’ll look like he had a stroke. Of course Beginnings still has the vials, and the anti-serum to it is in the vials. But . . . why would they suspect he was even given the drug?” Joanna stared up at George as he walked around. “They don’t even know what they have.”
“And that’s better for us. All right . . . Let me know when out troops arrive. I went to send them right back out for Frank and Ellen. I have a plan.” George went to the desk and spread out a map. His finger moved about it. “Keeping in groups of eight, we’ll send each group out in three or four hour intervals. Use the highway route, even though I’ll bet Frank and Ellen take this secluded route here, near the interstate..”
“They won’t stay on the highway? Why? It makes perfect sense.” Joanna stated. “Mr. Slagel will take that route.”
“Yeah, but I know Frank. If he senses trouble he’s gonna wander far off the path and hope for the Beginning choppers to pick them up. Which you and I both know, they won’t. At least not for awhile. We should get them first.” George refolded the map. He was confident in his plan that Frank and Ellen wouldn’t get that far. He had something in his favor. He got to know his enemy.
CHAPTER THIRTY
August 17
“Frank?” Ellen walked behind him, keeping up the rear. “I’ve been looking at this map.” She took another bite of the cracker she munched on.
“Don’t look at the map, El.” Frank stopped reached back and snatched it up. “Please.”
“But it appears to me, that if we followed the basic principles of Geometry--the shortest distance between two points is . . .”
“El. Just walk.” Frank kept his stare ahead.
“Are we stopping soon?”
Frank opened the map as he walked. “Uh . . . about four m
ore miles than we’ll stop for an hour. We’ll clear the woods and hit the highway by then. If my guess is right.” Frank looked down at his watch. “My dad should be hitting the highway just about that time. I hope.”
Ellen’s legs stepped high to go over the large clumps of grass that seemed to patch up. “Are we going to stop and get me more clothes at the next town. These are too big.” She lifted the shorts and rolled them. “I keep losing my pants. No clothes, no running water. I hope you find me a large enough area of water so I can purge my body in it. I feel gross. And I hope to God I don’t get my period out here.”
“You and me both.” Frank stopped walking and held his hand out.
“What’s wrong? Hey we . . .” Her mouth was covered by his hand and he pulled her back, almost dragging her back into the depths of the trees. “What?”
“Shh.” Frank held her back and placed his mouth to her ear. “Be quiet. Look.”
Ellen slowly turned her head, a hundred feet away, through the trees she saw them. They walked in a line across the road way. Soldiers, peering out to their left and right.
“They’re looking for us.” Frank said. “We’ll stay deep and try to get a head of them, so we can take them out. Can you run?”
“As fast as you need me to.”
Frank pulled her back another fifteen feet into the wooded area. He ran with her, fast and forward to get ahead of the small squad of men. They found their spot. A small rocky hillside off to the side of the road. Frank pulled their gear close and grabbed his ammunition sac. He pulled from it two grenades and then set up his rifle, keeping an extra clip handy. He perched his rifle and picked up a grenade, holding it in his hand. The soldiers grew closer, fifty feet, forty. Frank pulled out the pin and held it . . . thirty, twenty. Standing up enough to get his throw he tossed the first grenade.
It clanked on the road way, rolling across the cracked pavement into the tip of a boot. Looking up to see where it came from, the soldier tried to run. With an explosion, he and the man next to him flew off ten feet from the ground, leaving their feet still behind.
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 113