by Angela White
Angela left the tent as the sound of a chopper increased to nearly deafening. The chopper could be blown up at any point. It was on the pilot’s terrified face and in the jerky downward movements of the landing in the center of her heavily fortified site. More than a hundred men were here and all of them hated the soldiers.
The door slid open before the chopper had landed, revealing Donner, in full uniform, standing there waiting to be executed.
In time, Angela promised herself. He had the advantage right now. If she killed him, the bunker would bomb them and he knew it. For this meeting, Donner held all the cards.
Angela, with a group of protection, moved toward the chopper and stopped a dozen feet away as Donner came out alone. She couldn’t see inside the shadows of the chopper, thanks to his choice of an evening pickup and she stayed still instead of going to meet him.
Donner saw it as an insult and possible trap, but he stepped onto her base with an arrogant flare and salute to the pilot.
It was returned with a shaking arm and a pale face.
Donner spent a few seconds scanning the people, the fierce loyalty he felt, the secrets that they held. The government is right to want you all exterminated, Donner thought. You’re strong.
“I want to be sure they stay that way,” Angela stated coolly.
Donner chuckled at her display, knowing it was for those people who were suddenly face-to-face with a demon from their nightmares and feeling concern for their immediate future.
“I had trouble with Sergeant Wallz,” Angela stated, tone regretful. She was sorry.
“Dead?”
“Along with Heather and a few others. They thought they’d be forgotten during the trade, left to rot here. They tried to break out. I had mines in place. It wasn’t pretty.”
Donner didn’t care if she was lying and didn’t dig. “Where are Mitchel and his son?”
“Conner wasn’t part of the deal,” Angela pointed out. “He isn’t here.”
Donner half suspected the lie this time, but again, didn’t care enough to pursue it. “Get Mitchel and let’s go.”
“And in return?” Angela prompted, keeping her distance.
“We’ll pull out and depart the state. Your people are small potatoes. They can go.”
Behind Donner, Trey was with Becky and Samantha, knife in one hand, gun in the other. His intentions were clear. If given the order, he would shoot one and gut the other.
“Do I know you’ll keep your word?” Angela asked. “No, I think we’ll do this a different way.”
Donner tensed to fight, but Angela only held up a small box.
Donner recognized the trigger to what he could only assume was a powerful explosive. He began ripping into her mental walls to discover where it was hidden.
“Not here,” Angela answered without a strain. Her witch shoved Donner out as if he were nothing.
“It’s in more than one place, but that’s not the part you have to worry about. It’s the weaponized Smallpox virus it will spread across this mountain.”
Donner laughed. “I’ve been inoculated for all that shit. Try again.”
“I accept that challenge,” she intoned, stopping his amusement. “Your vaccinations are decades old and this strain was developed in the good ‘ol US of A, a mere two years ago. Wanna bet your vaccination can stand up to it?”
Donner fell into fast-thinking mode.
Angela blew him out of it with, “I want Tracy.”
Donner gaped in confusion. “Who?”
Angela sneered, “Your man took her and you don’t even know? What kind of a leader are you, Major?”
Donner’s ego wouldn’t let him take too many insults. Angela knew that. She would push him carefully.
Donner slowly reached into his pocket and took out a small radio. “Bring this Tracy to the gate. And identify yourself, Soldier!”
Awful laughter answered.
Donner scowled. “Sherman.”
Angela raised a brow and Donner shrugged. “A minor player.”
“I want her back,” Angela repeated. “And then you get Adrian in exchange for letting Safe Haven go.”
Donner had decided things had gone too far to change his plans. “No deal, Ms. White. Blow us up or get on that chopper.”
It was the moment where time and fate stood still to witness what the choice would be.
“I’m sorry,” Angela said softly. “I didn’t want it to be this way.”
Her finger lowered on the button.
Before Angela could push it, gunfire rang out. They all turned to see Bridget strolling through the camp, shooting at the chopper with a gun in each hand.
“Where is she?!”
Bullets pinged off the chopper, deflected into the crowd. Even Donner flinched at a near miss.
Trey pushed the hostages back, trying to get a clear shot.
Angela grabbed at Bridget as she came by, snatching the gun to club the heart ass woman in the temple with it hard enough to take her straight to the ground.
In the ruckus, the detonating box had been shoved into the hands of the person closest.
Cynthia kept a finger hovering in case Donner tried to grab it, but the Major stayed back. Watching Angela direct Bridget’s body to be bound and placed in a cell, he appeared fascinated.
Angela started to take the box and then froze, mind going dark. Something had changed.
“Donner!”
Sherman’s drunken shout was ugly and loud, close by. It was a surprise to see that he was inside the camp, next to her command tent. The gun in Tracy’s ribs was little compared to her beaten face.
“You want this bitch so bad!” Sherman shouted, motioning toward Angela with the gun as he dragged Tracy backward. “I’ll kill her for you!”
“If he fires, I’ll blow us,” Angela warned Donner, taking the box. “You won’t make it out. There’s a charge under your chopper.”
Now Donner had to step up and prove his leadership, but the situation wasn’t under his control anymore.
As he moved toward Sherman, eyes starting to glow, the mercenary shook his head, gun aiming at Angela. “Not me! Her!”
Crack!
Sherman’s body arched. Blood burst from his lips as the bullet went through his chest and out the other side.
Donner stared in anger at the sniper who was no longer under the cover of the overhead tram. Furious to have his man stolen from under his nose, Donner blasted the sniper with all of his pent up frustration.
Angela screamed in denial as the blast went out. She stepped toward the woman falling from the tram as her Eagles pulled Tracy to safety, but it was too late to stop Crista from hitting the jagged cliffs below.
“Die!” Jeff screamed, rifle coming up.
Donner sent a blast over that side of the camp, knocking a dozen fighters into the enraged man.
Donner spun around with a kick and sent the box in Angela’s hand flying toward the chopper. Her guards rushed to get between them as the soldiers outside the gate began climbing.
Angela slipped and let Donner catch her as she fell, delaying. His arm snaked around her throat and the courtyard went quiet again except for the mini-battles along the weakening fence.
“I will kill her,” Donner warned the circle of men around him. “Get Adrian on that chopper. Now!”
During the chaos, Trey had kept Samantha on the chopper. He quickly retreated.
Angela found Theo’s eyes in the panic. Go get her body.
Theo nodded slowly, stunned. I will. My word.
Adrian was rushed roughly onboard the chopper a few seconds later, but Jeff had found the box.
He held it up. “You can’t have her.”
Donner didn’t understand how serious Jeff was as he sneered, “You’ll be dead in ten minutes. The bunker will blast this mountain off the map.”
“No, they won’t,” Jeff said icily. “Weaponized Smallpox will spread with explosions. It will decimate the entire country, including the bunker. You won�
�t get any reinforcements while I hunt you down. That was my woman. I’ll never sleep again until you’re dead.”
“While we all hunt you down,” Cynthia spoke up, also furious over Crista. “You can’t hide from us!”
Donner began to understand that striking out at their sniper had been a mistake, but there wasn’t a way for him to back down now. He dragged Angela toward the chopper, grip so tight she was almost passing out.
Jeff, grief-stricken, wasn’t bluffing. Those who knew him fled toward the gate, hoping to escape the coming conflagration. It started hysteria and the entire camp fled toward the only exit that Donner’s chopper was blocking.
Donner let go of Angela, lunging for the box as Jeff turned toward Crista’s body.
“Stop!”
Alarms began sounding from every radio tuned on–loud, piercing waves that halted all activity in the effort to make that one sound go away.
When it did, the replacement wasn’t better.
“We wish to speak with Angela White or Adrian Mitchel. Please comply immediately.”
Angela, who’d been pulled to safety behind a wall of Eagles, croaked out the obvious.
“It’s the bunker, Jeff! Answer them before they bomb us.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Taken or Infiltrated?
1
Jeff stayed close to Angela as she answered the call, not sure if he might blow it all anyway. Losing Crista was devastating now that he’d accepted the inevitable settling into kids and a wife. He’d almost convinced himself that he wanted it. Jeff couldn’t resist swinging on Donner when he walked by to listen to the call.
Donner hit the ground, prepared to brawl, but Jeff stepped back. He would take his rage out one swing at a time if that were the only way he could get it, but his mind was already telling him that after it was all over, Donner could be hunted.
“I’d help with it,” Angela stated lowly. She hadn’t foreseen Crista’s death, though she’d had bad feelings and ignored them in favor of the more obvious threats. She also hadn’t accounted for Bridget’s growing insanity and it had cost them all.
Donner stayed outside the tent, armed and ready to kill. Trey kept the hostages in the chopper, though the two females weren’t allowed to come to the door, preventing foolish rescue attempts. Trey knew these two women were the only things between him and certain death. The mob in Angela’s camp was as dangerous as the one he’d quelled in Donner’s camp.
“I repeat, put Mitchel or White on with us. We can see your location, hear your transmissions. Comply now.”
The routine male voice was nearly a computer. It added a sense of calm to the situation.
Angela keyed the radio. “You’ve got me. What?”
The bunker man was startled into a laugh. “Am I bothering you?”
“We are kind of busy right now,” Angela confirmed, rubbing her throat as her men shot glares of hatred at Donner. Having him here went against everything they’d been trained for.
“Yes, we’ve noticed,” the man replied sardonically. “You will get onto that chopper, Ms. White. All of your people can go free, but you and Mr. Mitchel have things to answer for.”
Angela’s response wasn’t what her fighters were expecting.
“I accept your terms. It is witnessed by hundreds here and across the country. If you break your word, the war will resume and the bunker will be first on our lists.”
“We have no intentions of continuing this war, Ms. White. Nor will we allow you to detonate a biological weapon on US soil. Should you do so, we will target your location and use enough force to obliterate the virus and your meddlesome interference.”
Angela didn’t have to put a tremor in her voice to indicate being intimidated. The waves of menace were vibrant.
“I’ll keep my word. You do the same.”
“We will. Get on the chopper with no further incidents. We will order our troops to withdraw. When they are gone, your fleeing rats can desert their ship without fear of the big bad wolf.”
The mocking was almost too much for Angela. She dropped her head to keep any of them from witnessing her rage. The bunker still had no respect for what she could do. That would change as soon as they betrayed the deal.
“I need a few minutes to collect my things and pass leadership,” Angela said over the mutters and protests growing in and around the tent.
Donner wisely and carefully moved toward the chopper, understanding how much danger he was in as the wolf he’d only briefly glimpsed padded from the small supply tent to his right. He hadn’t seen the animal until now.
Dog stopped a few feet from his newest enemy, aware of Angela in his mind. Her warning kept him from lunging. She said Charlie and Marc would be killed if he attacked. It kept the wolf glaring but inactive.
Angela heard the gate opening and feet pounding to get inside. The soldiers who’d survived were regrouping, choosing where to go next. She had little doubt that they were being surrounded from multiple directions. She hadn’t been able to kill enough of them.
Donner sat on the chopper floor, ready to fire his weapons, but the crowd knew Angela’s bluff hadn’t worked. She was being taken.
“You have five minutes, Ms. White, then I’m sending the missile. You see, I don’t think we should waste our time capturing traitors. And I like explosions. They’re so…unstoppable.”
Angela clicked the mike in reply and then jerked the wires from the radio. It was the only sign of her anger, but no one realized she’d prevented them from easily calling to Marc. The rest of her plan had to have time to work before his vengeance landed.
2
“Faster!” Marc growled. He and Quinn were way ahead of their group.
Marc had left Safe Haven’s den right after Jennifer, who had chosen to go straight for Donner’s remaining men and threaten their lives to reveal his secret location. Marc hadn’t argued, though he doubted Lilly would have gone to the Major. Her vendetta was personal. It was torturing Marc not to be able to help track down the infant, but he had to get to Angela. He’d sent teams out to start searching for any signs of Lilly, but in that time the awful whispers Dog had heard had returned to haunt Marc. Something was happening with Angela and it wasn’t what they had planned. Dog had already left his side, eager to be involved.
“Over here!” Quinn called. They’d seen a body fall from the tram, but hadn’t been close enough to tell who it was.
Crista was still breathing when Quinn came into view. She’d been fighting to hold on.
She breathed a sigh of pain and relief.
“Marc! Help her!”
Marc was frozen for an instant as he saw who it was. The happy future he’d seen for her and Jeff burst into flames.
“What have you done?” Marc cried, rushing to her in desperation and fear. “I can’t fix this!”
“I did the only thing I could,” Crista whispered, life fading faster than she could get her mind to form sentences. “She’s bad now. You have to save her!”
Crista’s lids shut as she forced out Jeff’s name and then gave up the fight.
Marc let the crushed woman be slid from his arms, horrified as the meaning sank in. Angie thought she’d turned bad. What would have caused that?
It only took a minute to figure it out. Murder was the only thing big enough to crush his Angie this way. She’d killed someone and didn’t feel it was justified.
Marc felt his stomach churn. She wouldn’t want to be around to influence anyone with the darkness it would have brought. That was why she’d stayed away from everyone. She wanted to die, and now, before she got to feel the baby move and became attached to a child that she couldn’t birth.
Marc felt his anguish from the rest stop return as the other pieces fell into place. She’d become cold and hard, with no encouragement and little hope. She’d used women and children to fight their war with the government. She’d allowed Adrian to live, time after time…
Marc’s guts were acid now. She’d fallen i
nto a horrid depression and neither of the men who wanted her the most had recognized it. What would that cost them?
3
“I had to endanger us, to give us a chance to survive,” Angela tried to explain to those around the command tent. “The government isn’t producing offspring. We are. If I had killed us all or released Smallpox, it would have wiped out any chance at rebuilding civilization here and in the bunkers, where they have no women.”
“But our country would have been gone!” Neil protested hotly.
“Yes,” Angela agreed. “Anything is better than letting them rebuild their world just to destroy us all over again. We were a free country once. If I can’t return that, I’ll kill us all!”
Neil didn’t know what to say, thinking she’d finally gone crazy, but Jeff could appreciate her point now. They were Eagles, from Safe Haven. Being such avid patriots meant they had to make the ugly choices.
Angela had, and so far, her bluff had worked. Safe Haven was fleeing from the Oglethorpe base to Angela’s last location even now and the soldiers who were supposed to stop them were providing an escort instead. Those men would likely join the camp at some point and try to forget they were ever on the other side of it. Others would flee into the shadows of this apocalypse world and never be seen again. As for the soldiers still outside this site, Angela didn’t envy them the future that waited.
Donner didn’t let her out of his sight, but found himself thinking Adrian being unconscious had been convenient.
“Why did you dart Mitchel?” he asked suddenly.
Angela glowered at the bound blond that had just been dumped near her feet. “He can’t take no for an answer.”
Donner didn’t respond directly to that, but she could feel him running the clues through filters to come up with the same conclusion that everyone else had. Adrian had come between her and Marc. She had no problem turning him over.
Angela hefted her kit over one shoulder, finally looking at her escorts and guards. “You have to trust me. If you don’t, it still falls.”
“Do what your boss tells you to,” Donner ordered arrogantly from the flap.