Tabernacle (Super Pulse Book 3)

by Dave Conifer

  He didn’t think it was a good idea. Then again, none of this was a good idea. If she wanted in, she was in. It would help to have a crack shooter along, and it saved him from the difficult task of recruiting a Sec Force or two.

  “Chuck, I’ve known you for a long time. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you’re being straight with us,” Nick said before they departed. “Not like last time. Give me your word.”

  “I swear to God, I’m with you on this,” Chuck said.

  “Because I’ll have my eye on you,” Nick said. “We all will. If you’re just looking for a ride back to Dix, it’s not going to work out well for you.”

  “No, it’s nothing like that, Nick,” Chuck said. “Look, I don’t like them anymore than you do. I just had no place to go, and they wanted me. I’ll be glad to leave that place behind. I don’t like how some of those guys look at Bela. I’m no angel, but these people have no morals at all. It’s only a matter of time before they go after her.”

  Nick was satisfied with his answer, and turned his attention to preparations. When they departed it was in a purple pickup truck they’d found in the street. After dragging its deceased occupants out, they threw their hastily gathered supplies, including six metal spears, into the bed off the truck. A few jugs of water were also taken from the vans and thrown in. That was optimistic, Nick knew, but if all went well, they might have some thirsty escapees riding back with them in a few hours.

  Sarah and Chuck remembered each other, of course, but Elise had to be introduced. Nick was careful to distance Chuck in everyone’s eyes in advance from whatever illicit activities they uncovered at Fort Dix, mostly because he believed it, but also because the mission wasn’t going to work if there was any friction on the team. Unity was key. For the same reason, he cut the rope that bound Chuck’s hands and gave him a weapon just before they went on the road. They were old neighbors, after all, he told himself.

  Stu Cooper, who insisted on being called “Coop,” was lying in the bed of the truck with his rifle as they traveled. Apparently he’d gotten wind of the mission, and had shown up just as they were about to leave with an angry, determined look on his face. Nick remembered his fiery speech from earlier, the one that rallied the Lockworth residents. Coop was a good man to have for this one. Not that they had a choice. He was coming along whether he was invited or not, and that was that.

  “Do you think me and Bela could come live at your place?” Chuck asked after they were on the road to Dix. “When this is all over?”

  “It’s possible, but I doubt it,” Nick said. “The bosses didn’t have anything nice to say about you after what you did, as I recall. But that’s for another day, and somebody else to decide. To be honest, I’m hoping they let me come back after we pull this stunt. I’ll be in hot water, like I always am.”

  “Maybe if we succeed tonight, it’ll earn me some brownie points,” Chuck said.

  “I’m glad we have Coop,” Nick said, changing the subject. “We’re lucky he volunteered. We needed one more, but I couldn’t find anybody. I’d have asked Matt, but I want him looking after Dewey on the trip back to Tabernacle.”

  “This Coop guy looks kind of squirrely,” Chuck said.

  “Who cares how he looks?” Nick countered. “He’s fearless, and he’s angry. That’s enough right now.”

  “How long will it take to get there?” Sarah asked.

  “At this speed, over an hour,” Chuck answered.

  “Good,” Nick said. “We have a lot to talk about. We’ll fill Coop in after we get there. And Elise, I just want to remind you that we’re taking our best shot here, but there are no guarantees, okay?” Nick asked.

  “I got it. Thanks,” was all Elise could say, as overcome by exhaustion and emotion as she was.

  “Whatever happens, will you come to Tabernacle after this?” Sarah asked. “Nick told me what you said before.”

  “Not without my daughter,” Elise said firmly. “That’s not going to change.”

  “So anyway, Chuck and I talked about this earlier,” Nick told Sarah and Elise. “We drew a few maps in the dirt. Here’s how we’re going to do this. Keep in mind that we’ll try to rescue anybody who wants to be rescued, but we’re also trying to get out of there in one piece. There are limits to what we can do.”

  ~~~

  There were several entrances to the corner of Fort Dix that the enemy had occupied, but Chuck had identified the one that was closest to their target. They parked the truck a half mile before reaching the gate and walked in silence through the trees along the road the rest of the way. Chuck had told them there were usually three guards at every gate. But it was past midnight, he reasoned. Most of the men here were so undisciplined that it was unlikely that they were doing their jobs with diligence at this hour, if they were on the job at all. Eliminating any guards was crucial for success, so Nick hoped Chuck was right, one way or the other.

  All five members of the team crept forward in the darkness to the guard shack at the entrance. Each of them had a rifle on their back. The men also carried spears. Once they were in position, they took a minute or two to catch their breath and confirm that there were, indeed, several guards inside the shack. They sprang into action when Chuck softly whistled the signal.

  While Sarah and Elise stood by with their guns, the men broke from their crouches and stormed the shack. Nick heard two men in the shack cry out in pain as Coop and Chuck buried spears in their guts. Nick’s man, in the center, was alert and nimble enough that he eluded Nick’s stab. A lucky jab and cross to Nick’s chin knocked him to the floor, where he joined the two slain guards. He felt the heel of a boot slam down onto his neck, but the pressure fell away quickly after he saw a muzzle flash from Chuck’s rifle.

  “You okay?” Chuck asked as he pulled Nick to his feet.

  “Yeah, except my neck doesn’t bend so good anymore,” Nick answered as he flexed it. “Thanks for taking that guy out.”

  “That’s twice now,” Chuck said. Nick knew exactly what Chuck was talking about, and why he’d reminded him.

  “What now?” Coop asked.

  “You know somebody heard that shot,” Chuck said. “Our cover’s blown. Same plan, just do it faster. The girls are in the Quonset hut I already told you about. It’s not too far from here. I’ll go get Bela and be back. Remember the secret whistle, if we meet up in the dark, so we don’t start shooting at each other.” He disappeared quietly.

  None of them had any idea how many fighters were there at Dix, since so many had been killed in Lockworth. For all they knew, there was nobody else except the guards in the shack. Not that they were counting on that. Nobody thought this would be that easy.

  There was no time to lose, now that the gunshots had alerted the enemy to their presence. They ran as fast as they could in the dark to the Quonset hut, which was exactly where Chuck had said it was. As they’d been warned, the door was chained shut from the outside. While the others stood guard, Nick inserted the tire iron into the chain and twisted it as hard as he could, knowing that the power of leverage would break it apart. His neck throbbed with pain as he forced the iron round and round until he felt the chain snap and clatter noisily to the ground.

  The voices from inside the hut told him that they were in the right place. For a split second he wondered how they would know which girls were from Lockworth, before he remembered. They weren’t leaving any of these girls behind, whether they were from Lockworth or not. He yanked the door open and charged inside.

  “Quiet,” he said. “We’re here to rescue you. Follow me.” The line was scripted. They’d chosen the words carefully on the ride there, knowing they had to convey a lot of important information quickly.

  The girls, who must have been camped out on the floor, obeyed the orders and filed out behind Nick. They could hear the boisterous shouts of enemy fighters coming their way now. Nick hoped he was leading everybody in the right direction as they scrambled away from the hut.

  “Tammy?”
Elise called out in the dark as they walked. “Are you here?”

  “Mom?” a young voice answered. “Is that you?” The voice cracked with emotion. “What--”

  “You can talk later,” Coop interrupted. “Can you girls run? They’re gaining on us.”

  They answered with their feet, which pounded on the asphalt as they ran. One of the girls stumbled and fell with a grunt. Nick, who had dropped to the back and was right behind her, tripped over her body and landed on his shoulder, removing a layer of skin and sending waves of pain through his neck. They both pulled themselves to their feet and caught up with the others.

  By the time they’d passed back through the gate and out of Dix, the pursuers were catching up. His neck and shoulder aching, Nick’s heart sank when he saw the light from their torches glowing orange on the backs of the girls. Somebody stepped to the side and fired a dozen pistol rounds at the chasing mob before resuming flight. Nick knew it had to be Sarah, the only one not equipped with a rifle. Coop led the group back into the trees along the same route they’d taken on the way in. Seconds later Sarah was back with them. The group had slowed to a walk. That was the best the emaciated girls could do without a break.

  “Those dummies are doing us a favor with those torches,” Coop said, breathing hard. “We know exactly where they are. If they get close enough, we’ll know where to aim.”

  By then, Elise and Tammy had found each other and were embracing clumsily as they walked. “Knock that off,” Coop said. “Save it for later.”

  “Yeah, keep moving,” Sarah told them. The shouts of the men chasing them were growing louder by the minute.

  “A hundred yards more,” Coop said, urging them on. “We have to run!”

  “Do we have to wait for Chuck, or do we just desert him?” Sarah asked. “I’ve got no use for him, I’ll tell you that.”

  It was a moot point, because somehow, some way, Chuck and Bela were already at the truck. “No need to worry about that, Sarah,” Chuck told her. Meanwhile, the mob from Dix was closing fast.

  “We’ve got a lot of bodies and not a lot of space. How do we do this?” Coop asked.

  “Load the girls into the back like logs!” Nick yelled. “Elise, stay back there with them and make sure they keep their heads down! We’ll rearrange after we get a few miles down the road!”

  He slid in behind the wheel, checked that they were all aboard in the back, and pulled out of the woods onto the road. He swore he could feel the heat of the torches as he U-turned and sped away, the truck slow and sluggish now that it carried a heavier load. As he watched in the rear view mirror, the torches shrank away to nothing. They’d pulled it off, and he couldn’t believe how smoothly it had gone. Success was due to a combination of careful planning and the enemy’s buffoonery, but none of that mattered anymore. Now it was time to go home.

  Twenty-nine

  The rescue had been far simpler than Nick expected. Apparently Chuck had been right. So many of their men had met doom as part of the Lockworth invasion that the camp at Dix had been depleted. That went a long way toward simplifying the mission.

  Of course, execution of the three guards had a lot to do with it, Nick reminded himself after replaying the events in his mind. Those killings were necessary to save the girls, and the dead men had earned this fate by joining such an evil group. Even so, he was still uncomfortable with the taking of life, something he’d done several times now with his own hands. In the new, lawless world, there would be more of that. He accepted this and would learn to live with it, but he didn’t have to like it. Somehow, his distaste for killing was a comfort to him.

  They wouldn’t have stopped in Lockworth at all after escaping from the fort, except for the possibility of alleviating the crowding problem in the pickup truck. The girls in the back were stacked up like cordwood. Even if they stopped frequently and rotated them through the cab, it was going to be a difficult ride all the way back to Tabernacle for everybody. They all agreed that it was worth driving through town one last time to see if they could scrounge up another vehicle or two.

  Coop reminded the others that Lockworth wasn’t necessarily subdued yet. Besides the live prisoners that may have been left behind, there could be stragglers in the woods who were smarting from their wounds but still looking for a fight. When they entered the town, the barrels of their guns should be in front of them, all agreed.

  Elise took an inventory as the sun came up, and found that all four Lockworth daughters were among the rescued. When she gave this joyful news to Nick, he wondered how the daughters of the other mothers, the ones who’d moved on to Tabernacle without them, were going to feel. That’s gonna’ leave a mark, he thought. But anything’s better than being dead. And it’s not my problem.

  Who knew what horrors these girls lived through during captivity. The new campers were going to be a boon for Tabernacle, but they were bringing some emotional baggage along with their fragile health. Once again, though, he reminded himself, it’s better than being dead. At least he hoped it was.

  A street-by-street scavenging run yielded only one running vehicle. The rest of them had probably been taken back to Tabernacle already. Even one vehicle would help a lot, however. Along the way back to camp they would use an old garden hose to siphon enough gas to keep both trucks moving. Their stay in Lockworth was short, only an hour or two. That was long enough, even for those who’d lived there all their lives.

  Nick knew he could expect a stern rebuke for ad-libbing the last night of the mission. Knowing how strict Grover was about the chain of command, he hoped that was all it would be. Not only did he risk lives for an unsanctioned cause, he was leading Chuck Jevik directly back to Tabernacle despite knowing that Grover and Roethke had specifically and emphatically rejected him in the past. He thought about dropping Chuck somewhere along the way, not to be fetched until Grover’s reaction was gauged. But too many people were suffering to add even a few minutes to the journey. Besides that, he felt like he owed Chuck something for saving his life not once, but two times now. He’d make sure Chuck was unarmed and humble when they arrived, and they could try to talk their way through it.

  After several false starts over recent weeks, it felt like winter arrived for good that morning with an icy wind that blew in out of nowhere. The cold was going to make life far more difficult than anything they’d experienced yet. Having the extra hands would help with that, he was sure. Despite his worries, that was something that gave him satisfaction and relief as they headed home, because he was the one who’d dreamed that up and then made it happen. On top of that, the personal demons that Barton Moon had brought into his life had been largely exorcised now, though he still had some work to do with the surviving Moons. Whatever happened, he felt more lighthearted than he had in quite some time.

  He’d take whatever punishment he had coming without protest. He was part of the fabric at the camp now, even if his role as the rebellious opposition was turning permanent. That was something he was learning to live with, and even embrace. In a group run by men like Grover and Roethke, a dissenting voice was never bad. He wondered if Grover himself, a long-term thinker if ever there was one, secretly encouraged this as a way to maintain flexibility and keep minds open to change.

  Being the one who so often spoke his mind and went against the grain wasn’t always a pleasant experience. It was a load that he knew he could bear, though. He was okay with it. Being that voice was something he could live with, so long as it was done at Tabernacle. Because more than ever, that was home for him now.

  THE END

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  Tabernacle

  Other Books by Dave Conifer

  Hard Lines

  Wrecker

  Primary Justice

  eBully

  Throwback

  FireHouse

  Snodgrass Vacation

  Man
of Steel (Cold Cases Book 1)

  Zodiac Rogue (Cold Cases Book 2)

  Money Down (Cold Cases Book 3)

  The Grid Goes Black (Super Pulse Book 1)

  Dave Conifer is a fitness fanatic living in South Jersey with his wife and three kids. When he's not coaching wrestling or soccer or working as a boy scout leader or girl scout leader, Dave likes to read non-fiction history. He also blogs about the 48 solar panels on his roof and how they generate nearly all the power needed by his family of five.

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