“Amanda!” Ennis’s voice rang through the night.
It was only then that she realized there was no more gunfire. She slowed her pace, dropping behind a semi stranded on the two-lane road they were taking out of town. She guessed she’d run at least a half-mile since they’d burst out of the factory. It had been chaos. She closed her eyes, reliving those terrifying moments when they’d fled, the gunmen shooting at the garbage cans rolling towards them and through the parking lot. It hadn’t been long before the gunfire had turned in their direction, making their escape extremely dicey.
Ennis joined her behind the truck she’d crouched beside. The two of them stood bent over at the waist as they tried to catch their breath.
“Where’s everyone else?” she gasped.
“I don’t know. I saw shadows running out of town. I got pinned down not too far from the factory. Everyone was gone by the time I was able to make a break for it.”
“We need to find them,” she breathed out.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so. You?”
He chuckled. “Other than feeling like my lungs are going to explode, I’m good. I didn’t get hit. I didn’t see anyone drop when we headed out the door, either. I think we all made it out of there.”
“Thank God. Maybe they were just trying to scare us out of the factory and not actually hit us,” she said as they began a slow jog down the side of the highway, sticking to the shadows.
He made a coughing noise. “Those guns were real. You don’t shoot at someone if you’re not actually trying to kill them.”
“They must have watched us go in and then waited,” she said.
“You think?” Ennis asked.
“I’m thinking either they saw us come into town and were lying low, waiting to see what we’d do, or else they were watching the factory.”
“Maybe there was something in that factory to be had and we didn’t find it,” Ennis agreed.
“I should have been more alert. I should have known it was too easy,” she said, chastising herself.
“Amanda, is that you?” Gretchen’s voice cut through the night.
“It is. Who’s with you?” Amanda asked, looking blindly into the field of dry grass where Gretchen’s voice had floated from.
“All but Ennis,” she replied, her voice grim.
Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m with Ennis. Is everyone okay?” she asked, heading toward the voice.
“Harlen took a hard fall, but none of us are shot. Your garbage can trick worked,” she said, emerging from the shadows.
“Thank God. We need to keep moving now that we’re together again. There’s nothing here for us,” Amanda replied, giving Gretchen a quick hug when they met up on the side of the road. It didn’t sound like they were being followed, but she didn’t dare stop.
Still, she could feel the defeat hanging on them like a heavy cloak as they moved up the road. They’d walk through the night, the mountains providing their only real safety. It was clear the towns were no-go zones. Even the ones that looked abandoned were too dangerous.
“What do we tell Austin?” Malachi asked.
“The truth. He isn’t going to be upset that we didn’t find anything. We knew this was a possibility,” Amanda said.
“Where do we go from here?” Tonya asked.
“I don’t know. Civilization is breaking down. I don’t see anyone welcoming new community members. I think we’re stuck with each other,” Amanda said, attempting a joke.
“We can’t seem to find anywhere to settle down,” Tonya said, exhaustion evident in her voice.
Ennis let out a long sigh. “That’s our goal. We find somewhere we can live and protect, just like all these towns we’ve encountered. All these little groups have found their little corner of the world. We’ll find ours, Tonya. We just have to be diligent.”
“We can’t settle down with that man wanting to kill Austin, and the rest of us by extension. We stop moving with him, we die,” Harlen stated.
Ennis chuckled. “There is that.”
Of course, it wasn’t that simple, and they all knew it. None of them would ditch Austin, but that didn’t matter. By now, Zander had a good idea who most of them were, or at least their faces. Even if they asked Austin to leave the group, Zander would still kill them. He was a ruthless, evil man who wouldn’t hesitate to take some kind of revenge on any one of them for their part in the battle at the prepper house. An image of Nash’s face popped into her mind. None of the people walking alongside her could make it through that kind of torture and not give up their secrets. She wasn’t even sure of her own ability.
“How are we supposed to see once we’re away from the road?” Gretchen grumbled. “Shouldn’t we stop for the night?”
“We’ll figure it out. I’d rather go into the woods blind than stay back here and wait for angry people with guns to kill us,” Ennis replied.
Amanda’s legs burned as they made the second steep climb of their journey back. “I don’t remember it being so steep when we went into town,” she complained.
“Funny how it never feels like that until it’s time to make the return trip,” Ennis said with a strained laugh.
The faded yellow lines on the road were highlighted by the moonlight, their only real guide. Amanda wasn’t fond of traveling in the middle of the night, knowing there were more than human predators lurking, but it was what it was. “I think we need to turn off up here somewhere,” she said, straining to see the mile sign they were coming up on.
“Another mile,” Ennis replied confidently.
The group was subdued and quiet as they followed Ennis. He had an excellent sense of direction—far better than Amanda’s. She’d gladly follow him.
Ennis stopped in front of one of the milepost signs, and the rest of them followed suit.
“Here?” Amanda asked.
“Here. We need to go about three miles east, up the mountain. With the dark and the terrain, I’d say we’ll be there right around sunrise,” he commented.
There was a collective moan from the group at the idea of walking all night long, but Amanda cut it off. “Let’s keep moving. We’ll have a chance to sleep a few hours before the others return.”
“If they return,” Jordan grumbled.
Amanda ignored him. She knew Austin wouldn’t fail. He refused to fail. She only hoped they had found something. The group needed a win. Morale was low, and without a place to call home with plenty of resources, it was only going to get worse. Low morale would cause more problems. She thought back to SERE training. That had been one of the first things they’d been warned about. Low morale would disrupt their very strained relationships within the group. The breakdown would be the equivalent of what they were already seeing in the towns.
It would be every man for himself if that happened.
7
Austin woke to the sound of hushed voices. He immediately rolled to the side, reaching for his gun as he checked on Savannah. She was sound asleep, curled in a small ball in a corner of the lean-to. Ezra, who had been on watch, must have heard the noise, as well; he was already on his feet with the Glock pulled out when Austin emerged from the shelter.
The voices were louder, but it was one voice in particular that stuck out. Smiling, he lowered his gun, slipping it into his waistband at the small of his back.
“What are you doing?” Ezra hissed.
“It’s Amanda,” Austin said, unable to stop smiling with relief. He was already walking towards the sounds of grumbling people, never having been so happy to see the disgruntled faces of the people he now considered family.
“You’re back,” he said with a grin when Amanda’s tired face appeared in the faint light of the morning.
Exhaustion evident in her sagging shoulders, she only muttered in return.
“Let’s get you some water,” he said, stepping in next to her.
“Good, we all need it,” she replied.
He looked at
the faces of disappointment and defeat. “Didn’t go well?” he asked as the others followed Ezra back toward the clearing.
Amanda stopped walking, pushing hair out of her face. “No, it didn’t. It’s a very long story. What about you? Did you find anything?”
“Not exactly. We struck out, and instead of risking missing our reunion, we came back last night,” he said, holding back the news. She needed water and maybe rest first.
She groaned. “Great.”
“Have you been walking all night?” he asked.
“Yes, we had to. We kind of got chased out of the town we’d stumbled into. Not kind of—we did. We were shot at and had to run for our lives.”
Austin froze in his tracks, and then gripped her hand, all but pulling her back to the clearing. He wanted her with him. “I’m sorry. We didn’t hear anything all night. I think we’re safe enough here to give you guys time to rest. We’ve got some water. While you guys rest, we’ll go hunting,” he said.
“I want to say we don’t need to sleep, but I’d be lying. I need to close my eyes for a while and then we can come up with a plan. Everyone’s feeling anxious about a lack of roots. They’re scared,” she said.
“I know. I get it, but I think we might have a way out of all this,” he said, suddenly anxious to tell her everything.
“You do?”
“I’ll tell you all about it after you’ve gotten some water and rest,” he promised.
In their makeshift camp, everyone was up, greeting one another and talking about what they’d seen. Austin and Amanda hung back on the fringes, each of them quietly listening to the conversations. Austin grabbed one of the half-empty bottles of water and handed it to Amanda.
“I’ll go hunting,” Wendell announced. “We all need some breakfast.”
Austin looked at him, his brows raised. “You’ll go hunting?”
He nodded. “Sure, I can.”
Ennis, standing a few feet behind Wendell, met Austin’s eyes and very subtly shook his head. Austin understood.
“I’ll go with you,” Austin muttered.
“Really?” Wendell asked, clearly surprised.
“Yes, really.”
“I’ll go, as well,” Mike volunteered.
“Good. The rest of you, keep your eyes open. Let the others rest. I want a full perimeter around the camp,” Austin said loudly.
“Camp?” Wendell asked with a sneer.
Austin shot him a glare. “It’s our camp for now. Build a fire ring and then we’ll get going. We’ll need to purify more water from that stream.”
“I can do it,” Savannah said. “You guys go hunt. Find us some hamburgers,” she joked half-heartedly.
After a moment, Austin looked over at Drew. “Can you help her out and keep an eye on her?”
“Will do,” he said.
With that, Austin grabbed a rifle, handing it to Mike. He wasn’t keen on letting Wendell carry a gun, and suggested he wear the long hunting knife they had brought with them from the house instead. The man seemed to understand that the suggestion was more order than anything, and he took the knife.
They headed into the deeper forest, northeast, hoping to find some food for the group. Austin didn’t talk. His ears were open, listening for anything they might use as breakfast. Hungry as he was, he’d eat just about any meat he could get his hands on.
“What exactly should we be looking for?” Wendell asked.
“Anything that moves,” Austin replied dryly.
“Think we’ll find a deer?” the man asked.
“Doubtful. Very doubtful if you don’t be quiet.”
Wendell groaned rather taking the hint. “More squirrel?” he complained.
“We take what we can find,” Mike shot back. “Now, quiet, man!”
Austin’s eyes were on the rocky terrain, littered with leaves from the many bushes growing in between the tall Ponderosa pines. He hoped to find some tracks or notice a game trail. It all looked the same, though—wild and untamed.
“Berries!” Wendell shouted.
Austin looked in the direction where Wendell was pointing, towards a sunny, south-facing slope. The pale green mingled with dark green leafy bushes growing wild with plenty of red berries.
“Raspberries,” he said with a grin.
“Really?” Wendell asked. “Not poisonous?”
“Not poisonous, which is great. We’ll pick a lot, but watch for black bears. This is their food source,” he warned the others.
“You got that right. Scat,” Mike said, pointing to the ground.
Wendell flinched. “Bear poop?” he asked.
“Yes, bear poop. So, let’s hurry. I have one of those grocery bags in my pack,” Austin said, shrugging it off his shoulder and quickly unzipping it as they moved towards the berries.
The three men began picking rapidly, dropping berries in the bag while scanning the area.
“I see some wild strawberries over there,” Mike commented.
“That’ll make an excellent breakfast! Let’s get those. I think there’s another bag in my pack,” Wendell said, clumsily removing his own backpack and noisily fishing around for the bag as he and Mike headed for the next bush.
Austin nodded toward the remaining raspberries. “I’ll keep picking these while you guys go for the strawberries. This might be it for food.”
Some of the overripe berries squished between his fingers, leaving them stained red and sticky as he picked faster. He kept telling himself to be happy with what they’d found, but he couldn’t quite ignore the hunger in his belly for something more substantial. His mind started to wander as he thought about the pantry back at Ennis’s now destroyed home. They’d had it good there. He hated that it had all been taken away.
“Austin!” he heard Mike shout, and looked up to see what was wrong.
Wendell had gone pale, the bag of strawberries hanging limp in his hand as he stared toward Austin. With that prompt, and Mike’s wide eyes to back it up, Austin slowly turned around until he saw a black bear lumbering towards him as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
His mind raced. Did he scare the bear or keep his mouth shut and hope the bear left him alone? He slowly backed away from the berry bushes, hoping the bear wouldn’t see him as a threat. The bear stopped about thirty feet away and stared at him.
“Get big,” Mike said in a quiet voice.
“That’s cats!” Austin retorted.
“I think it’ll work for anything,” the man shot back.
“What do we do?” Wendell whined.
“We wait. It’s a black bear. I doubt he’ll attack as long as he doesn’t feel threatened,” Austin said, hoping he was right.
“Shoot it!” Wendell exclaimed suddenly.
“I have a twenty-two. That isn’t going to do anything but make it mad,” Austin hissed back.
The bear was staring at Austin. He could practically feel it sizing him up. In the back of his mind, he scolded himself. He knew it was better to stay loud and chatty in bear country, to keep the bears away, but he’d been hoping to find some meat for food and had let that take priority over safety. This bear didn’t want to be around him anymore than he wanted to be around it, and this encounter was their fault. They’d been quiet, none of them talking as they picked their breakfast.
Suddenly, a rock the size of a baseball flew past Austin’s head, landing a few feet in front of him and skittering over the terrain, sending more small rocks moving.
“What are you doing?” Mike growled behind him.
Austin shook his head, not even needing to turn around to know that it was Wendell who’d thrown the rock, antagonizing the bear. “Wendell, stop. You’re going to scare it and it might charge us.”
“Stop!” Mike shouted just as another rock flew past him.
“Wendell, knock it off!” Austin shouted, not turning around in case the bear did decide to charge.
The bear stood up on its hind legs, his head swinging back and forth as if the creature w
as trying to get a better view of the situation. It was an intimidating sight.
“Get out of here! Go! Rawr!” Wendell screamed, throwing more rocks.
“Stop!” Austin shouted as the bear dropped to all fours and did a swaying thing, its big fluffy body moving back and forth.
There was an oomph sound then, and some cursing behind him. Austin half-turned to see Mike tackling Wendell to the ground. When he turned back around, the bear was making a full turn and heading back into the trees.
Austin waited, watching to make sure the bear was going to stay gone before heading towards Mike and Wendell, who were now dusting themselves off and getting to their feet.
“What’d you do that for?” Wendell spat.
“Because we told you to stop and you didn’t!” Austin answered.
“I got him out of here, didn’t I?” he asked defiantly.
Austin glared at him. “You could have gotten me killed.”
Wendell stared back at him, the look on his face actually sending a shiver down Austin’s spine. Wendell looked almost satisfied, his eyes beady and boring into Austin’s, so that he suddenly wondered if that had been the man’s plan.
The thought was disconcerting, and put him on high alert. Mike looked at Austin, then Wendell, taking a step back.
“Let’s get out of here. I’m done,” Austin said, not trusting Wendell not to try and get him killed again.
They trudged back towards the camp in silence. Austin wasn’t sure what had happened; if Wendell’s actions had been stupid or intentional. Either way, he didn’t like it.
By the time they got back, most of the group was back up and moving. Sarah was under the lean-to, sitting with the laptop and tapping away on the keyboard, a look of pure determination on her face.
Savannah sat next to the firepit, a small fire burning with the single pot they had sitting over the flames. She was staring into the pot, clearly lost in her own little world. Tonya was still under the shelter, lying on her side and sound asleep. The mood was subdued as the others talked in low voices.
“You’re back,” Malachi said, looking up from the pine cone he’d been carefully tearing apart.
Small Town EMP (Book 3): Survive The Conflict Page 6