Edge Of Bloodshed

by Kip Nelson

  Chapter Twenty

  Adam and the others walked through the camp. Many people who still were picking up the pieces of their broken homes and carrying their dead away glared at them. Adam was humbled by this and wished he could make amends. Somehow he would find a way. He kept trying to tell himself that the true person responsible was Lisa, and yet he could not deny the part he had played in the attack. His fingers had pulled the trigger of his gun and his bullets had killed others. He didn't know how he was going to live with it, but somehow he would. He didn't want to keep asking Peter about death and war, but the man was a veteran and must have had some good advice.

  The morning light gave everything a soft glow. The camp looked different in the daylight, far smaller, and it was easy to see just how much devastation had been wrought. Adam was ashamed and he bowed his head. He wondered if Peter and Diana felt the same as him. Diana...he still couldn't believe she was alive. Seeing her burst through the crowd was such a surprise. He'd almost cried with happiness when he saw her. It seemed that Annabelle was happy as well and he was glad for that. Although he had to admit a certain defensiveness when it came to her, and he did want to talk to Stan just to make sure that Annabelle's father still had all his faculties intact.

  Tara was nearby, and on occasion as they walked through the city their hands met and he felt the warming sensation of her flesh against his. At first, he was a little worried the others would notice, but then he realized that it didn't matter, and he should be proud of the happiness he had found in this world. Tara seemed delighted that he took her hand and he now was sure that whatever they shared was not just a product of their impending demise, and it was not just a flash of desperation from two people who had to gaze down into the gaping maw of their doom.

  Stan led them to the rear of the camp to a church, where they entered and made their way up the aisle. At this point Stan put Annabelle down and she walked beside him, holding his hand, although Adam noticed that Annabelle still was staying close to Diana, and Diana still was staying close to her. A blonde man greeted them and Stan walked forward. They exchanged a few words in private and then the two of them welcomed them into the church. Introductions were made, and the blonde man gestured for them all to take a seat on the pews that filled the church.

  “It seems like your mission was a success,” Matthew said to Diana.

  “It was. We managed to get there in the nick of time as well. Lisa was about to execute them. Thank you again for sparing some people to come with us. I don't think we'd have been able to do it if it just had been the two of us.”

  “That is a sobering thought. I'm glad that I made the right decision by placing my trust in you. We're not going to make it in this world if we keep turning our backs on people because we're afraid they're going to hurt us. And I wouldn't be a very good person if I didn't try to forgive others, I mean, look where we are,” he stretched out his hands and looked around at the high ceiling and the wide church.

  He looked at each of them in turn and his tone became sharper, and a bit more sonorous. “I'm sorry to hear what happened with you. I can't believe anyone actually would try to execute people in this day and age, but perhaps I should stop being surprised when it comes to Lisa. There seem to be no depths to which she will not sink. I assume you realized she wasn't all she claimed?”

  “I started to have my doubts last night,” Adam said, “but when we returned, Tara told us that Annabelle had been captured. Seems she had heard something she shouldn't have. We knew we couldn't wait, so we tried spreading the word and forming a rebellion to wrest control away from her, but she has done a real number on everyone there. They just stood by and let her do all of this. Thank you for saving us. If Diana and the others hadn't come along when they did...”

  “It's best not to think about that,” Matthew said, smiling at Adam.

  Adam didn't want to get his hopes up too much, but he had a good feeling about Matthew. He seemed to be reasonable and actually wanted to help people, although Matthew was about to give them some bad news. He stroked his long beard, which seemed to be quite a quirk of his, and Adam saw the sadness in his eyes.

  “Your cause was noble, and I'm sorry that it did not succeed. I have spoken with Diana, and she's given us a good account of the camp and of all of you. I can see now that you did try to stand up to Lisa and that perhaps not everyone in her camp is as bloodthirsty as she seems to be. I have been thinking long and hard about whether to provide you with shelter in this camp or not. Of course, Annabelle will stay because I shall not separate a father from his daughter again--”

  “I'm not going to stay unless everyone else does. These are my friends, and you can trust them. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for them, and Tara wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me,” Annabelle said, and then shot Tara an apologetic look.

  “I don't want to leave daddy, but I can't leave my friends either,” she said. Matthew seemed quietly amused and he struggled to suppress a smile.

  “Like father, like daughter,” he said. Stan seemed to scowl.

  “As I was saying,” he continued, raising his eyebrows to Annabelle, suggesting that she should let someone finish speaking before she interrupted, “it is clear to me that you all have been through a lot, and you were lied to by Lisa. If we are to fight her, then we will need all the help we can get, especially from people who have been so close to her. I am sure you all will be willing warriors to make up for the deceit you have suffered. But while I can offer you shelter, I cannot promise you will be treated well. We lost a lot of people last night, and the camp took a lot of damage. You will have to put up with a lot of angry stares and a lot of insults.”

  “As long as you can guarantee that nobody will try to execute us, I think we'll take that,” Adam said, grinning. The tension among them was not quite loose enough for humor, though, and he received only a slight smile from Tara. Matthew continued as though Adam hadn't spoken.

  “I'm hoping that when people see your true intentions, and when you tell them stories of the horrors Lisa has committed, they will come around to seeing you for what you are. When this community was founded I took leadership because nobody else was willing to do it. It was not easy, and there are challenges and surprises every day, but I never thought I'd have to deal with anyone like Lisa. She will not rest until she has wiped us out. I know that too well from accounts of survivors from other camps. She cannot be allowed to live. She has been responsible for the deaths of so many people, and we never will be able to rebuild society as long as there are people like her in charge. If you all can get on board with that, then eventually you will prove yourself to the people who live here, and they will accept you as one of their own.”

  “What's your grand plan?” Adam asked.

  He wanted to know what kind of man Matthew was if he was to pledge himself to Matthew's cause. He had been taken in already by Lisa's false promises and honeyed words, and he did not want to make any rash decisions. The promise of shelter was welcome, and in some ways surprising, given the role he had played in the attack on the camp, but there still was a part of him that wanted to be cautious.

  “I want there to be a good future for us all. We've all seen so much destruction and we all have lost so much. I think that in the old world we were too quick to see the differences, and if there was any silver lining in the horror of what happened, then it was that we would all be brought together as one people. I thought this whole thing would begin a new era for humanity, but we cannot move on as long as Lisa is out there. I will fight her until my dying breath because I do not think the end of the world was the end of us. We are too adaptable for that.

  “I want everyone to feel as though they have a place in this world and a say. I want them to be able to pursue their dreams and their happiness. We have struggled through the winter already. It has been hard, and not only have we lost people to Lisa, but we have lost them to the weather as well. It hasn't helped that our food keeps getting stolen. Life is hard, and it wou
ld be all too easy to give up and surrender to everything that is trying to tear us down, but I will not let that happen. As long as there are people who are willing to stand with me I believe we can make it through this trial!”

  His words were impassioned and Adam felt a chill run down his spine, and the fine hairs on the back of his neck rose as if in worship.

  “I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that we will stand with you until the end. I don't want to see Lisa win. She's already taken too much from too many people. We're with you, Matthew,” he said, looking around at his friends. He was met with nodding heads.

  “Then we're happy to have you,” Matthew said.

  He went around to shake all their hands and then he left them, saying there was much work to be done. They all followed through and went to help around the camp, rebuilding, repairing, and helping pay respect to the dead. Adam looked around and he saw hardworking people cooperating for a better future. These were the types of people who should have been prospering in the world, and he was damned sure they were going to show Lisa she couldn't win, and that her way wasn't the right way. He also was going to kill Lee as well. That man had run out of chances. There was no love lost for Joanna, but Lee hadn't shown any remorse when she had run in front of his gun, only annoyance that she had took the bullet that was meant for Adam. Adam's life had been saved again, by a woman who had caused the death of his old friend.

  Lee hadn't shed a tear. He barely even had acknowledged the fact that Joanna was dead, and this after Joanna had gone to him and told him what Adam was planning, at least that's what Adam assumed.

  That was all to come, though. At least Adam was able to relax for a little while now and settle into a new place, with new people and a new purpose.

  “So, you and Tara?” Diana said, sidling up to him. Adam smiled when he saw her. It still would take him a little while to get used to seeing her again after thinking she was dead.

  “Yeah, that happened,” he said.

  “You sure picked a hell of a time.”

  “Well, you know, I do like choosing the right moments for these things. What happened to you anyway? I was so worried. I wanted to come and look for you, but we were withdrawing, and I didn't want to be left here alone.”

  “I just got turned around and lost, ended up being captured. I thought I was going to die myself when I saw Stan come in. In fact, I don't think I would have been there if he wasn't Annabelle's father.”

  “Yeah, how did you even know?”

  “Just lucky. When he was questioning me, I saw he had a tattoo of Annabelle's name on his wrist. I didn't know if it was her, but I took the chance because it was the only one I had, and I was lucky enough that it was him.”

  “I'll say, and now the two of them are together again.”

  “I know. It's just a shame her mom didn't make it as well. I can't wait to see how the two of them get along. You know, I never really did press her about what happened with her parents and after hearing it from Stan I can't say I blame her. It was really terrible. But it sounds as though you had an eventful night as well after you left here.”

  “You can say that again. I'm glad that we're going after Lisa but, honestly, I wouldn't be disappointed if I never saw her again. I really thought that everyone else would have stood up to her. They were going to let her get away with it, Diana. They were going to let her kill us!”

  “They're all going to pay, Adam. After what we did last night...everyone has to know that this isn't right. We can't let it continue. I feel horrible for the way everything has turned out. I mean, I wasn't happy about marching off to war in the first place, but to find out that Lisa had lied to us...” Diana shook her head.

  “Once we go back and we tell the truth, everyone will come around. I'm sure of it,” she said. Adam only wished that he could be as sure as Diana.

  Find out what happens next in book four! Coming Soon!

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