by Angela White
A large fire in front of the house glowed brightly, illuminating the filthy tools lying around the sparse grass and the personal effects of victims. Two large people dressed in all black stood on the porch with shotguns, sweeping the darkness, and Samantha stayed down. Marc wanted her to be a surprise and she hadn’t spotted David at all. She was hoping dawn, which was closer now, would help her with that before it exposed her.
One of the chained men slumped over and the two guards on the porch nudged each other in obvious happiness. They didn’t leave their posts, but one of them banged on the front door.
Are they eating them? Samantha wondered, stomach twisting. She didn’t see tools for that, but the rest of the scene fit the part.
The door opened and another black-clad person came out and dragged the collapsed man inside. Samantha wanted to be glad he was out of the cold, but worried that the fate inside the house was worse.
Not sure how she would stay hidden when the sun rose, Samantha hunkered down and tried to keep warm. There was little cover here and the icy wind was relentless as it reformed the landscape into a crystalized quarry.
Come on, Marc. I’ve never done this before and I’m getting nervous.
4
“Ready?”
“Yep,” Adrian replied, hands full of Marc’s ammo. I’ve been reduced to gun boy.
Marc grinned and fired.
The grenade hit the vehicle behind the house and exploded, taking the old wagon with it. There weren’t any people here, not even sentries, and Marc took advantage of it.
“Let’s go.” He took off running, aiming for the side yard and Adrian followed, slamming the grenade home as they went, reloading the launcher. It was another variation of the way he had trained the Eagles to do more damage, and the former leader tried not to grumble.
They reached the side yard as the rear door opened and the yard flooded with activity.
Marc opened fire as soon as they were in range, hitting the giant tree. Shrapnel flew over the yard, bringing screams.
Marc ran for the front porch next, aiming at the door as the chained man shouted for him to stop. Marc had no intentions of firing, but he let Adrian reload it for the appearance. He wanted the house cleared–quickly–and this would do it.
“Get out!” a man shouted as he saw Marc and the launcher in the doorway. “Breach! Get out!”
“Now!” Marc ordered through his belt radio.
Outside, rifle shots lit up the stillness to compliment the screams as Marc and Adrian dropped the launcher and ammo, and opened fire.
Taken by surprise, the eight men and women were quickly killed, but it was too late for the naked man on the floor. They’d already begun to chop him up.
The ninth man ran for the rear of the property and dove into a small hole Marc assumed led to an underground area.
After Samantha came to cover them, Marc and Adrian freed the captives they found and then headed for the hole.
Samantha stayed topside, lurking in the shadows in case anyone had been drawn to the noise.
5
The tunnel was made from sewer piping and once they climbed down, it was tall enough for the two men to stand up. Neither of them flipped on a light that would make them a target in the darkness. Adrian used his night scope and Marc sent out his grid.
Marc spotted half a dozen still-warm bodies and three heartbeats. He’d learned to tell the difference over the years and he went forward with his gun in one hand and knife in the other.
“There!” Adrian called, spotting their prey.
Marc lunged forward through the darkness, and was immediately knocked against a dank wall as a bullet went through his jacket and stopped against the triple plates. Marc staggered around, still coming and his would-be assassin screamed, firing again.
Adrian shoved by Marc to club the man with his own rifle and Marc let him, chest aching. The plates stopped the bullet, but not the force. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck.
“Good to know I’m not alone in that,” Adrian stated wryly. His shoulder and arm hadn’t stopped throbbing, though the trim had clotted on its own.
“Yeah, but you deserve it,” Marc complained lightly. He was feeling good, like always after winning a fight, surviving. “Let’s get our guy and go.”
They found David and another man in the farthest room under the ground and neither of them looked good. Both of them were unconscious. Marc and Adrian each carried one from the cellar.
Samantha hurried to go get their wheels without being told. For all the running around, the house was only a few minutes from the spot where David had been taken. The mall was a trap they’d been using to draw in refugees. Samantha still didn’t know what they’d been doing with them, but the survivors they’d brought out would tell the stories.
Because there had been captives here, Samantha wasn’t feeling as bad about David’s injury.
Until she returned, and found him still unconscious and covered in blood. Then the guilt overwhelmed her and she burst out crying as she stumbled from the van. “I am so sorry!”
Adrian caught her around the waist before she could go to David, rotating her toward the vehicle. “We want to leave now. You drive.”
Too upset to notice who was giving her orders, Samantha climbed into the van and started the engine.
Marc gave Adrian a nod of approval that he didn’t want to deliver, but felt was deserved. David didn’t need her tears. He needed a doctor. The arrow through his leg was ugly enough that Marc wasn’t positive he would walk on it again. Marc also wasn’t sure the leg would be saved and he knew when Sam realized that by the way she opened the van door and vomited.
6
“They’re back!”
Angela met the van at the gate and saw Samantha, Billy, and two injured men. “Where’s Marc?”
Samantha was too busy helping one of the men to reply–Angela assumed it was David–and Billy came over to her after waving for Eagles to help the two injured people to the medical bay. The third man had lived long enough to feel the chains come off, and his body hadn’t been brought in.
“Marc made me stop at the bottom of the road. Said he and Adrian felt like walking.”
“Did they? Feel like walking, I mean?” she asked, instantly worried.
“Adrian didn’t,” Billy said tiredly. “He was looking like I feel.”
Angela motioned him on, saying, “Get a report in by evening mess.”
Billy tiredly vanished toward the showers.
Angela also left, not wanting to be near the gate when the two men made it up the hill. The witch’s warning came to mind, but Angela was worried about more than a possible fight or death attempt. She had secrets and both men had clues. It wouldn’t take much to put them together. Both of her men were incredibly smart.
Calling them your men, now, the witch observed. Interesting.
I don’t mean it the way you took it, Angela tried to defend.
The witch, refusing to accept any excuse for Adrian’s betrayal, stormed from her mind and rattled doors all the way down the hall.
Angela went to the medical tent to ask if the doctor needed any help, and found Samantha with her knife against the doctor’s throat.
“Well, this is a new one.”
Samantha slowly eased away from the cowering physician. “We had a difference of opinion on David’s treatment.”
David was still unconscious and the arrow was still through his leg, with light blood drips trailing across the floor and onto the cot. In the lantern light, David looked bad.
Angela gaped at the doctor. “You chose not to even try saving the leg?”
“It’ll be awful,” the doctor snapped guiltily, reddening. “Blood and screams, and sweating and it won’t work.”
“You lazy little–”
“Samantha.”
Angela’s tone said to Get Out.
Samantha shook her head. “I owe him. He isn’t losing his leg because of me.”
“It does
n’t look good, Sam. You know that.”
“Are you siding with him?” Samantha asked incredulously, hovering in front of David’s prone form.
“No, I’m not. He’s going to try or I’m going to relieve him for dereliction of duty. But you have to be prepared to face the truth. Without intervention, the leg might not be savable.”
Angela scanned the other man, who was slumped in a chair in the tent and awake, but not alert.
“Marc had us give them both a sedative from the medic kits you’ve got us all carrying now. He, uh…” Billy gave the rest silently. He started screaming while Samantha went for our vehicle. Marc said she didn’t need to hear it, that she would torture herself enough over it.
“Agreed,” Angela said, going to check on the man. She gave the doctor a harsh glower and the man forced himself to go to David. Samantha, busy removing David’s gear and pants, didn’t react.
Angela helped the man in the suit onto a cot. He needed a complete workup, but it would have to wait until the leg had been handled.
“I need help,” the doctor stated, still studying the arrow as if it was the plague. “And send someone who can hold him down.”
“You are not cutting off his leg!” Samantha growled.
“Lady, I have to shove that arrow through the rest of the way. Drugged or not, he’s gonna fight and scream. You can’t hold him.”
“I’m staying,” Samantha stated stubbornly for lack of a better answer.
“You can hand me things. All the other medical assistants are on cave shifts or sleeping. I wasn’t expecting new arrivals.”
“New arrivals,” the gate guard called over their radios.
The doctor jumped and Angela sighed, wondering if the newest people had passed two brawling men on their way up the mountain.
7
“Can you be bought?” Marc asked as they reached the halfway point. They’d let the small truck of refugees pass them without being detected, but now, they were striding up the middle of the cracked road again.
Adrian was surprised by the question and not sure how it was meant. “Can you?”
“Everyone has a price,” Marc answered, enjoying the walk in the dark. He didn’t get this much privacy very often.
“What’s yours?”
“Angie and the kids,” Marc replied immediately. “Your turn.”
Adrian realized he’d been led into an oral trap, and sighed at his blindness. I am getting old.
“Yes,” Marc agreed cheerfully. “You are.”
Adrian didn’t take the bait this time. Instead, he answered the question with one of his own. “What would you give me to tell her I have to go away and then do it? Because I am capable of that.”
Marc didn’t doubt it. If Adrian got some of what he wanted out of this humiliation, he would flee and never look back.
“You think highly of me,” Adrian commented bitterly.
“With good reason,” Marc reminded. “Now answer the question.”
“What would I be paid to do?”
“Leave the state and forget she exists.”
Adrian studied Marc in the darkness, trying to figure out where this was going. “You can’t give me what I want.”
“We both know that’s not true,” Marc denied. “She’d do anything to erase the guilt she feels.”
“You’d do that to her?”
“To get you out of our lives forever?” Marc shrugged. “Maybe. Is that your price?”
“I’d have to think about it,” Adrian stalled, decision already made.
“Fine. We’ll be at the gate in about ten minutes.”
Adrian grunted at the time limit, but didn’t protest. “She needs time out of those gates.”
“Not safe out here,” Marc denied.
“My site is safe as it can be,” Adrian hinted. “And you could send Eagles along.”
While Marc was enjoying some of Adrian’s eager groveling, the fact that it was time with Angie they were bargaining for made him put an end to it. “It won’t happen unless we make a deal, and even then, I’ll need time to consider your request.”
“Requests,” Adrian corrected. “If I’m being sent away, you have to take responsibility for my son.”
“No,” Marc denied. “Conner goes with you.”
“Safe Haven needs him!” Adrian insisted anxiously. “Angela needs him.”
Marc didn’t respond. None of this was up to him anyway and they both knew it. Angela would make the final choice and they would all try to live with it.
“Why can’t you share her?” Adrian asked suddenly. “Others are adjusting to the idea. Can’t you even consider it?”
“I’ve done more than consider it, you self-righteous prick,” Marc snarled.
“You told her you would?” Adrian asked, shocked.
“And she shut me down quick enough to make my balls hide, so save that shit. I’ve always been willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy. You want to rut like a dog and gloat.”
“I’d never gloat,” Adrian muttered. “I’d love her as much as you do.”
“Oh, shut up!” Marc ordered, increasing his pace. “You don’t know how to love.”
The two men fell silent as the gates appeared, full of life and light.
I miss that, Adrian thought, and quickly hid his misery.
Marc could have felt sympathy, but he knew better than to trust the former leader. Adrian was a coiled rattlesnake, waiting for the right moment to infect his prey with poison.
Marc studied the changes that Angela had made during his short absence, approving. The long fences provided a path for new people to follow and Zone B was now the closest to the main gate, indicating that it had now been rotated to be the ‘good’ area. Marc liked that, knowing strangers couldn’t use that knowledge against them if it was always changing.
Tarps of plastic hung over the long tunnels that would provide shelter for the herd while they waited. The ends were staked into the ground and covered with brush so that they would stay down. In just a few days, the shifting winds would have sent enough dirt and debris to bury the edges in inches of thick padding that would also keep in the warmth. It was a brilliant setup, but it implied too many people were coming their way and Marc realized she must be ready for the camp to know about the flood of refugees coming their way.
The gates swung open, Billy and Zack coming out to greet them, and Marc lifted a brow toward Adrian. Well?
Adrian was staring at what he could discern of the inside, and his voice was like the rock that surrounded them as he answered, “Kill me or share her, but I’m never leaving. I’ll be in your mirror for the rest of our lives.”
Adrian strode for his site with his head up and his anger held in check. If Marc thought he could be bought off with a night or two of sex, he was sorely mistaken. I’m in it for the long haul. When your clock runs out, I’ll be all over that and she’ll be complete for the first time in all her lives. She deserves that and so do I. Not every man on the planet has the strength to accomplish what I have.
8
“Safe Haven is a place of second chances,” Zack stated, already chilled to the bone after spending a short time with the lunatic woman. Marc’s brig had real bars and real cells, and Zack had locked her muttering form inside with relief.
“If you change your ways, you could eventually be allowed to be one of us,” Zack lied. Even if Angela wanted this looney, Marc and the Eagles would never allow it.
“I’ll ask you some questions and you need to tell me the truth. After that, you’ll get a blood test to make sure you’re not ill. You won’t be mistreated or–”
The woman interrupted him with a long laugh that sent chills down his spine. When she stopped, she turned empty orbs on him and went quiet.
Zack hid a shudder behind an itch and knelt down to be at eye level. “Who was the man underground?”
“Did he survive?” the woman demanded, surprising Zack. He instinctively said, “No.”
“Good!” the woman spat. “We were going to eat him, but he swore he was a state governor and we kept him for a bargaining chip with the bunker.”
“There’s a bunker still in use?” Zack asked, surprised again.
“Not now,” the woman admitted. “There were riots, revolts, something like that. We were all sent out ahead of it.” She examined Zack with a sane, pitiful expression. “Could I really stay?”
Zack nodded. “I need to know one more thing. How many of you are still out there?”
“We had ten in our group,” she answered, retreating from the bars. “You didn’t say maybe, if I follow the rules. You’re lying!”
“Yes,” he admitted. “You’ve been found guilty of attempted murder, murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and a lot of other terrible things. The sentence is death.”
She opened her mouth to scream, or maybe to laugh again, and Zack quickly shot her.
He holstered the weapon with a suppressor that Eagles were supposed to carry. Was that right? he asked himself, gun hanging limply as he stared at the body. Was it just?
“Yes,” Marc stated, entering the brig and locking the door. “Besides all the evidence at that farm house, I’m sure you noticed she was bat-shit crazy.”
“Yeah,” Zack grunted.
“She was guilty. You carried out the sentence.”
“Do I…hide the body?” Zack asked reluctantly. He wasn’t sure about Kyle’s methods.
“No,” Marc answered, opening the cell door with his master key. “I’ll take the hit on this one.”
Marc lifted the body over his shoulder and took it outside.
The shocked expressions and justified shouts greeted him as he marched to the gate, and Marc agreed with them. He was tired of being shot at, of being hunted, and this was how those people needed to be treated.
Marc went through the gate when Zack opened it, the former trucker curious as to what Marc had planned.
Marc dumped the body on the ground near Zone C and then began the revolting task of tying it to the fence. Marc was glad there were only a few refugees in Zone A to witness him take a marker from his smallest kit and draw a word on her forehead.