Dallas
One Day Ago
They rolled up to the hills overlooking the Lawrence Livermore Lab, and everyone silently readied himself or herself for whatever would come next.
The lab was an extension of a research facility sponsored by the Cal Berkeley University, and it was an enormous campus. Once considered one of the top ten places to be bombed during the Cold War, the lab had been the home of Edward Teller, one of the men responsible for the Manhattan Project and the making of the atomic bomb.
Einstein cleared his throat. “Here’s what I know. It’s not much. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s mission involved the strengthening of the United States’ security through development and application of world-class science and technology to enhance our nation’s defenses and to reduce the global threat from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.”
“In other words,” came a voice from the back, “to build weapons of mass destruction.”
Einstein shrugged. “Hard to say. All I know is if the A.N. gets their hands on this facility, the West Coast is theirs…and it won’t be too long before they take more.”
“Then why aren’t they already here?”
The group quieted as Akiko replied, “They’ve not sent their real military here yet. It would give too much away. They are also not going to risk their think tanks in a sea of sharks. Not yet. Instead, they’ve sent people like me and Yuzo…expendable people…those deemed ‘lesser than.’”
“I thought the Japanese were more enlightened that the rest of the Asian world.”
Akiko forced a half smile. “We are. The Japanese. We do not have laws banning homosexuality, and many of our gay stars have appeared on television, but it is all a ruse. We are not nearly as progressive as we want the world to think we are. This is not same with the Chinese. China has no civil rights law to address discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Their media censors any and all positive depictions of gay couples in films and television shows, and households headed by same-sex couples are not permitted to adopt children and do not have the same privileges as heterosexual married couples. Whatever you have seen on the television coming from China is always state-sponsored. Trust me, they are the ones who created the idea of the Asian Nation and using gays to come in here and clean up.”
“And Koreans?”
“South Korea has a mandatory military assignment for men. They must take a psych exam when entering, and those who are deemed homosexual can be institutionalized or given a dishonorable discharge. Don’t ask about North Korea. They are insane.”
Einstein cleared his throat. “So there you have it. At some point, I imagine the A.N. will send its so-called ‘healthy’ folks here to kick start facilities such as the lab. Given how few of our educated elite are probably alive, it will take another country to come in here and scoop up the plutonium and weapons inside. Then, we’re all screwed.”
Dallas slid her hand into Roper’s and gave it a quick squeeze.
“Okay...so here’s what we’re going to do,” Dallas said, addressing the group. “Akiko and Yuzo are going down there in their suits to see what they can find out. If the plutonium stores are out of Asian Nation’s reach and locked down, we move on to the Livermore airport for gas and any supplies before the final push. If we can find a working plane, we fly it back to Angola. Who can fly a plane?”
Everyone looked at everyone else.
A woman named Julie raised her hand. “I can fly. I’ll go back.”
Dallas looked at her. She was a new addition to the group. “Why?”
“I’ve been talking to those who came from Angola. They say it’s safe. They say it’s a good place to live. I…I’m pregnant, and I want some place safe to have my baby.”
Dallas nodded. “Perfect. Then you get the nod. Anyone else wish to go with her?”
Two other newbies raised their hands. They had been picked up outside of Texas with Julie.
“Good. Thank you.”
The sun peeked over the hills and basked them in an eerie glow that resembled something slightly apocalyptic.
A man named Mario raised his hand. “You sure we should even care? We’re leaving anyway, right?”
“Nuclear bombs being built and deployed will affect everyone, no matter where we go. We have to at least see whether or not they can just waltz in here and grab our plutonium. I know some of you were not on this coast when the virus broke, but Roper, Einstein, and I were, and let me tell you, the emergency was immediate.”
Akiko and Yuzo spoke quietly together in Japanese as Akiko translated for her.
“Is anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? How can we trust them?” Omar asked, pointing to the two women.
Roper shot the group a scowl. “Don’t you think they’ve already proven themselves?”
“You don’t know whether or not they called those choppers.”
“If they wanted us dead, don’t you th––”
“If we’d have wanted you all dead,” Akiko interrupted, “you would be. My Katana skills are second to none. Yuzo can break a neck faster than saying ‘break a neck.’ While we understand your concern, you have nothing to base your concerns on except for racial bias and fear. You need not be afraid of us and I hope, once we are through here, that you will trust us as we do you.”
Dallas looked over the crowd to see if anyone was going to respond. When no one did, she looked back to Akiko. “Roper will get your weapons from the cab of the Fuchs. Do what you need to do––then use the mirror and let us know it’s safe.”
Einstein had the helmet he’d first taken under his arm and listened intently to Akiko as she explained how to communicate with it when it was time to descend from their position.
The three of them had decided the night before to approach any hazmatters just as they’d approach the man eaters: kill as many as possible to ensure the relative safety of survivors. They were dangerous, had an agenda, and needed to be put down.
“All right then. We’ll wait for Akiko and Yuzo’s signal. Then, be sure there’s no crossfire. We just need to make sure it’s secure. If they are down there cleaning the area of man eaters, then we annihilate them. Kill every last one of them.” Dallas turned to Akiko. “You’ll need to lay low. Take cover once we start firing.”
She nodded as she put on her helmet and lifted the visor. “We’ll take care of as many as we can on the interior. Do not worry about our safety. Yuzo and I know all their basic protocols. We have the advantage.”
Roper opened the door of the Fuchs, reached in, and pulled out three Katana blades, handing them all to Akiko. “Good luck.”
Akiko grinned. “You Americans put far too much faith in luck.” Then she laughed. “You know what I mean.”
When they were gone, Einstein kept his face pressed to the binoculars. “It’s gonna be tough to tell them apart from the bad guys, what with their suits and all.”
“Numbers?”
“Fifty, maybe, but they could be all over the lab. The Department of Defense had its hands in the lab for years. Who knows what else the A.N. head honchos are looking for? It’s entirely possible they know something we don’t.”
Zoe turned to Einstein. “Like a cure or a vaccine?”
He shrugged. “The bioweapon was made somewhere, right? Isn’t it possible that our government also has a cure? An antidote? A vaccine? That could very well have been made here.”
“Won’t matter in an hour.” Dallas nodded to Hunter and Zoe, who took off with their group of eight archers. She smiled at Fletcher, who tipped his hat and took his group of combined shooters in the opposite direction. “Feeling better?” she asked as she jogged beside him.
“A little bullet won’t keep me down, Dallas. I’m good to go.”
To avoid crossfire or spreading themselves too thin, Dallas had decided to stretch their line out about two hundred yards. Upon receiving the signal, they would move quickly forward and engage the Asians with t
he hope that, by showing some resistance, they might hesitate in sending anymore to the lab until it was safer.
“Looks like we’re ready,” Einstein said, glancing to either side of him. “I hope we know what we’re doing.”
Roper quietly put her hand in Dallas’s. “They have com abilities, Dallas. You know they’ll call for help.”
“Let ‘em. We have anti-aircraft. We have weapons. Besides, how close do you think the next help is? San Francisco? Bakersfield? Sacramento? We’ve taken some of their choppers out already. Remember the keyword, baby. Expendable. Those people down there probably are not as important to the AN as the weapons they’re holding or the suits they wear.”
Roper smiled slightly. Dallas was leading her final charge, making one last play to help those left behind before sailing into the sunset. It was incredibly seductive. “You know, I’m pretty turned on right now,” she whispered.
Dallas chuckled. “Must be that survival sex.” She kissed Roper gently. “Ready, lover?”
“Fuck yeah. I’m sick of red and white. Let’s kick some ass.”
Twenty-one minutes later, the mirror flashed from building to the far right. Akiko and Yuzo had made their way to the perimeter fence of B Facility. The path to the area had been picked clean by Fletcher and his men, who knelt down and waited.
“Ready?”
Roper nodded. “Ready. Let’s do this.”
Running forward in a single line, Dallas and her people stunned the hazmatters working around the perimeter of Building B.
Before the Asians could fire off a shot, the survivors had taken out more than a dozen with bolts and arrows. Not one rifle shot was heard.
Still, there were others who came rushing around the corner, rifles raised.
Machetes in both hands, Dallas cut the legs out from under two hazmatters before checking to make sure Roper was safe.
She wasn’t.
She was barely able to deflect the blows coming at her by a larger hazmatter wielding a single, longer sword.
The clanging sound of metal on metal reverberated through the air as Roper kept backing up in defense. “Dallas?” she called out, barely deflecting a blow that surely would have severed an arm.
Dallas calmly pulled out her Sig Sauer and shot him in the chest.
Roper, breathing heavily, nodded. “Thank you.”
Blades whirling, the telltale sound of bolts and arrows thwupping as they found pay dirt, the survivors manhandled the surprised and unprepared hazmatters in no time at all. Those on the exterior of the lab had gone down swiftly.
“That was too easy,” Roper said, wiping blood off her forehead.
“They weren’t ready to fight. Who knows how long they’ve been here without any push back, without even seeing another American?”
Dallas ordered everyone to collect weapons. “Has anyone seen Akiko?”
“She went inside,” Zoe replied. “I’ll go.”
Dallas nodded and looked over at Hunter, who was right on her heels. “Five minutes. If you can’t find her, get out.”
“Roger that.”
Zoe and Hunter left Dallas and the others to clean up and cautiously entered building B, crossbows drawn.
“Stay low,” Hunter whispered.
“Ya think?” Zoe flashed a grin that immediately slid off her face. “Hear that?”
Hunter paused.
Metal against metal.
“Come on!”
Running toward the sound, they leapt over dead body after dead body.
“Jesus H. on a raft. Did those two do all this?”
Before Hunter could answer, a shot sounded, sending them to both press against the nearest wall.
“Two o’clock,” Zoe whispered.
“I got this.” Hunter rose, fired, and was back against the wall in the blink of an eye. The bolt had gone through the heart of the shooter. “Bull’s eye,’ he declared. “Those suits are good against teeth but not against sharp swords and pointed projectiles.”
“Damn, you’re good. You should have been an Olympian.”
He rewarded her with a grin.
“They’re still fighting. Come on.” Zoe started toward the sound, amazed at the dozens of dead they encountered along the way. When they got to an open office area, they found two people clashing with four Katanas.
“I can’t tell which is which,” Hunter said, drawing a bead on one of the swordsmen.
Zoe rose, crossbow aimed and ready, and watched the fight for five seconds before letting a bolt fly into the thigh of one of the fighters.
The fighter with the bolt went down on one leg, allowing the second fighter to step in, do a three-sixty, and decapitate the injured swordsman. Flipping her visor up, Akiko bowed once, sweat dripping off her face. “Thank you.” Taking the helmet completely off, she took four strides to Zoe, who wrapped her arms around her and kissed her hard. “Nice shot.”
Zoe grinned. “Had to be sure.” She kissed her long and hard again. “Yuzo?”
Akiko pointed down a hallway. “Plutonium is impossible to get to without electricity, pass codes, keys, the whole bit. There’s no worries here. It will take them a very long time to access it. It has been well protected. For now.”
“How do you know all of this?”
Akiko smiled. “You forget sometimes who I am where I’ve come from. I spent months learning about the important facilities on the West Coast.”
“Good job, Sweetness.”
Hunter cocked his head. “Sweetness?”
Zoe turned to Hunter, who just stood staring, slack-jawed. “What?”
“Umm...did I miss a chapter, Z? What the hell?”
Both Zoe and Akiko laughed. “Yeah, and it was titled Sleeping with the Enemy.”
“Aw man, seriously? You’ve kept this a secret from even––”
“Can we talk about this later? Yuzo went down that hallway.” Akiko put her helmet back on and took off down that corridor.
Zoe smiled at Hunter. “What? Would you have supported me if you’da known?”
“Fuck no. She’s unproven. She’s from the enemy. She––”
Zoe started after Akiko. “There you have it. I didn’t want to hear it then. I still don’t want to hear it now.”
“But you made it seem like…” He shook his head
When they got to Yuzo, she was just finishing off her final opponent. By Zoe’s count, Yuzo had killed fourteen from the time she’d come down the hallway where she and Akiko had kissed.
Akiko spoke in machine gun staccato to Yuzo, who merely nodded after each question. Then, Akiko turned to Zoe. “She says there are more in the next building.”
Zoe nodded. “Jesus, you guys are good.”
“Thank you, but I am a distant second to her. Her family is Isamu, a most famous sword maker. Her brother was national champion for three years. She is unbeatable.”
“Yet they tossed you both aside.”
Akiko nodded. “The Asian Nation has no use for those who are flawed.”
Hunter whistled. “Remind me to be nicer to you guys.”
Zoe held up Akiko’s hand, which she was holding, to Hunter. “You good with this or do I have to kick your ass?”
Hunter smiled. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen you look happier. I’m just…surprised.”
“Well, I’m not sure I’ve ever been happy before. How fucked up is that? I finally find happiness in the middle of a war zone. Only me, man. Only me.”
Grinning, Hunter mussed her hair. “Pretty jacked up. But then, when have you ever done anything the way everyone else does it?”
Akiko and Yuzo both held their swords out. “More are coming. Stand behind us.”
Zoe and Hunter exchanged a look.
“Sorry, babe, but we’re no slouches in the death delivery game ourselves. Why don’t the two of you stand aside and let us do our thing.”
One minute later, the seven hazmatters who had entered the building were all sporting bolts sticking out of their heads.
/> Akiko smiled. “It appears Dallas has chosen well.”
“Yeah, well. Come on. Our time is up, lover. We have to get out of here. We saw what we needed to see. We should have plenty of time to get the fuck out of here before the A.N. can get to the plutonium or any other weaponry.”
The four of them quietly exited the building, grabbing any and all weapons they found along the way.
When Dallas saw Zoe, she heaved a relaxed sigh. The only people left standing belonged to Dallas’s group.
“Everything okay out here?” Zoe asked.
Dallas nodded. “Two wounded on our side, no casualties. The plutonium?”
Akiko shook her head. “Even if they got the power back up and running, there are too may safeguards in place. It will take them a very long time to get to it, and not without help from someone in the government who has the codes. They were scavenging placeholders.”
“Placeholders?”
She nodded. “That’s what we call those whose job is to hold a place and keep it safe until the right manpower can be sent.”
“I see. Well, let’s see if there are any placeholders at the airport before making one final push to the island.”
When everyone headed back to the main group, Dallas pulled Zoe back. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”
Zoe opened her mouth, then closed it.
“The truth, Z. You’ve not had a single nice thing to say about Akiko, and suddenly, you’re all gung ho to go in after her? Spill it.”
Zoe watched Akiko as she walked away, “I’ve never been in love before, Dallas, so the truth is a little fuzzy right now.”
Dallas followed her gaze before slowly nodding. “Ah. I see. Akiko?”
“Akiko.” Zoe stood up straight, shoulders back. “The heart loves who it loves, Dallas. I didn’t mean to keep anything from you. I needed to see where it went for me. Just for me. Is that so––”
Throwing her arms across Zoe’s shoulders, Dallas started walking with the group. “Never ever apologize for loving someone, Z. There’s precious little of it as it is.”
“You’re not mad?”
Pedal to the Metal (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 4) Page 20