by Angela White
Kyle got a few feet away before looking back. “Just Seth?”
Neil’s face tightened. “Will it make any difference in your plans?”
Kyle let out a defeated sigh. “No.”
Neil gestured angrily. “Then what does it matter?”
Kyle was tired of keeping the pain to himself. “It matters because we used to be tight, you jackass.”
Neil scowled. “Hey, you’re the one who–”
“Who what?”
Neil stopped the fight before it could go further. “Convince me, Kyle. Do that and we’re all good.”
Kyle reluctantly moved back to where Neil was standing. He didn’t want to let anyone in, but that it was common knowledge that he wanted Jennifer, and he needed a friend now more than ever.
5
Drowsing pridefully inside the medical camper, John suddenly stiffened. “Trouble.”
He gestured at Anne with wide, dismayed eyes. “Get your gun–right now!”
Also nearby, Charlie slowed, looking around. What was that noise?
The Eagles in the shadows did the same. They couldn’t hear anything, but watching Charlie and Angela’s reactions was natural now.
Hearing sharper, Dog nudged the teenager toward the nearby trees. Stay low.
Not arguing, Charlie did as he was instructed.
“Eekkk...”
The noise was lost in the sound of gunfire. And then a scream echoed.
Charlie started to stand and Dog pushed on him, forcing the boy down. Be still!
Charlie struggled against Dog’s weight. “Let me up. I have to help!”
They’ve come for young blood! Dog shoved hard, and knocked Charlie down so that he could curl onto the teenager’s chest and keep him there.
Marc nailed the plates as they were thrown, now on round three with all the shooters tied.
Crash! Crash!
“That’s a draw again, folks!”
Billy’s voice was nearly swallowed by the crowd groaning and laughing, paying on bets and making new ones. It was clear the three Marines were evenly matched, but Angela thought maybe Adrian had said something to Brady that had calmed him down. That hard glaze was gone, with a thoughtful concern now in its place when their eyes met.
Angela wasn’t sure what had caused the flip, but she was a bit disappointed. She liked Marc’s inner man. He knew how to handle her fears–he didn’t coddle her.
Marc holstered the Colt after reloading, and moved toward Adrian. “A new challenge?”
As if fate had taken the words personally, radios crackled.
“Boss, we need you at the com truck. No rush.”
“Copy.” Adrian looked toward Angela, who began searching, and then to Kenn, who quickly headed through the crowd.
“We’re calling this one a draw, folks. Which means Brady defended his title. That’s a pass.”
Adrian moved through the celebrating, grumbling, slightly tense herd with Eagles on his heels.
The mob now quieter, the odd noise came again and was heard by nearly everyone.
Eeekkkkk…
The sound was one of nails on a chalkboard, sending ice into veins.
Danger to the herd!
Crimson unease traveled the camp.
Samantha wiped both sweaty hands down her pants and brought them back up with a gun in each. That having two was better, more fulfilling somehow, was something Samantha had come to accept.
She moved quickly to Angela’s flank and saw Cynthia do the same with Adrian.
Eeeekkk!
“What is it, Boss?” Zack asked.
“Uninvited guests,” Adrian answered, struggling for a plan.
Eeekkkkk…
In the eerie stillness of the apocalyptic Kansas sky, a new sound echoed–one that Safe Haven’s people knew all too well. Wings.
The Eagles immediately pulled their air horns and began blindly blasting them toward the sky as the colony got closer, but it was already too late. The bat colony swarmed over Safe Haven like a river, washing through the camp in a panicked flurry of razor-sharp wings and hungry fangs. Their food source had also changed.
“Get to the mess!” Angela sent, causing radios to spark across the camp, but it was hard to hear over the blare of the air horns and the screaming.
Adrian reached Angela as she braced and began firing using both hands. He put his back to her, Brady coming to form the pyramid, and they blasted through the bats they could safely hit without striking anyone in the crossfire.
It wasn’t nearly enough.
“Where’s the caller?” Marc shouted, shooting in a pattern he hoped would detour the rest of the colony getting set to swarm. The screams were telling the other bats there was food down here.
“Our tent!” Angela answered, firing.
They went that way, aware of air horns dying, people falling under numerous winged rodents, and the angry crimson bubble rippling over the entire camp.
“Why isn’t it protecting us?” Marc yelled, steering them into the main camp. He stopped in shock at the sight of the front of the colony zeroing in on them.
The trio hit the ground as the bats swarmed. Side by side, they rolled onto their backs and continued to fire, reload and do it again, but it was like dipping water from a flooded ship with a spoon.
“Bring the shield up!” Adrian ordered.
“No!” Marc still wouldn’t sacrifice her for the rest when he realized Angela hadn’t told the shield to come up.
Angela began to gather herself, terrified of being exposed.
The colony began to retreat without warning, sweeping into the air in a long black tunnel of wings and screeching cries.
“Where are they going?”
“Is it over?”
Angela rolled to her feet, running for their tent. Brady stayed on her heels, scanning the injured for their son.
Adrian grabbed two Eagles running by. “Get the spotlights on and people blowing horns in the vehicles! Get help!”
Lee and Kevin rushed off, jerking other men with them.
Adrian saw another running form, but didn’t try to get the mobster’s attention. Kyle was trying to make it to the livestock area, where Jennifer was helping the vet. The bat sounds from that area were loud, but the barking of the dogs was louder.
Above them, the shield flashed deeper crimson, lined in black wings as the colony circled to come in for another blast.
Eekkk!
6
Kyle hit the livestock area as the colony zoomed down; spotting Jennifer huddled under a metal table as the vet stood in front of it, waving a torch.
Kyle dropped to the ground, crawling. Bats slammed into his shoulders, his side, clawing and shrieking as he fought to get to her. Ahead of him, the bats were swarming Chris, wings ripping into his exposed skin.
Kyle jerked the air horn from his belt and activated it as he reached the vet who was now covered and on his knees.
The bats flinched away at the noise, and Kyle shoved the Chris toward the semi.
The horn gave a last, weak blast, and Kyle crawled to the crying girl, sliding his big body around her exposed skin.
Jennifer shook uncontrollably, face buried against Kyle’s arm and side as he protected her. Cramped up, she felt the first contraction coming and groaned against Kyle’s arm. Not again!
Jennifer shifted, taking the pressure off that side, and the cramp receded.
“Stay calm and don’t trigger your labor.”
John’s words came to her, and she concentrated on the sound of Kyle’s fast heartbeat as she relaxed her body. Kyle would keep the danger away, and she would keep herself from giving birth.
7
Whhooooo!
Angela spun the Caller harder, already knowing it wasn’t going to be enough. There was too much noise to detour the colony.
Whhhoooooo!
The blast knocked a large portion of the incoming line apart, sending corpses and stunned threats sliding into tents and corners, but the rest
kept coming.
Angela threw herself to the ground as the colony flew over them, dropping the Caller in favor of her gun.
Next to her, Marc sensed the ambush coming and ripped free of his coat in time to wrap it over both of them and roll.
Marc took the brunt of the hit in the shoulder as the second half of the colony flew in low and hard. Bats bounced of him, flying, scattering across the area with screams of merciless hunger and endless misery.
They stayed down until the sound of the wings began to draw upward, then they gained their feet and Angela brought up the shield.
A small group of trapped bats slammed into the shield near them, and fell to the earth with crushed skulls and shattered wings.
Above the camp, the colony circled, preparing for another strike. The lead scouts sent radar and came back with a barrier, but it was too late to stop the incoming rush of blood-crazed bats. They slammed into the barrier like a bomb blast.
More than half of the colony hit the shield around Safe Haven, shaking the ground it rested on. Those closest to the edges were thrown to the dirt as the dome shifted sideways from the force of the impact, but it held.
Angela swayed as the sound of dropping corpses and splattering guts echoed.
Denied their newly discovered food source, the screeching colony regrouped to circle the camp and send sonar. At the first sign of weakness, they would swarm again.
Adrian’s mind insisted it was really happening. The shield was a solid, crimson wall of protection that wouldn’t even let the sight of the sky through. On the other side, the bats were still there, waiting restlessly to be fed. As soon as the camp began to realize what it was, Angela would be in danger. They would all assume it was her doing.
Marc grabbed Adrian’s arm, leaning close. “We built it–the Eagles. Get that spreading now!”
Before Adrian could respond, another shout ripped into their minds.
Mom!
Angela turned that way, and Marc put a hand on her arm. “I’ll go. If he was hurt, Dog would be calling.”
Angela agreed, knowing Adrian needed her help. Injured camp members were all around them.
“It’s like nature’s feeding on us, when she gets hungry,” she gasped.
“No. She’s making rounds of the dwindling herd of humanity, taking out as many as she can during each blow. We aren’t the only ones suffering her wrath.”
Adrian’s answer was chilling.
Angela shared a helpless look with the leader, and then they cleared their expressions, gathered their priorities, and began helping their people. It was hard work, done while listening to the remaining bat colony circling above and screeching in hungry dissatisfaction.
Kenn appeared at Adrian’s side a bit later, Tonya in tow. “They’re not going away.”
Adrian waved Zack off to work on the list, and Kenn got his notebook out, ready to take down the solution he was sure Adrian had in mind.
But Adrian was struggling. All those bodies!
“Ready, Boss.”
The bats were flying down for another round of sonar, the clicks and high-pitched cries sending shudders through the survivors.
“Boss?” Kenn blocked the view of the dead, big body standing in Adrian’s line of sight. It was one thing that their leader would always react to.
Adrian slammed his lids shut, willing the pain back enough to think. The bats weren’t going away, and the camp was discovering the shield–already starting to avoid Angela as she helped those who were down. The rumors while under attack from the slavers had reached enough ears to be a problem now. What had to come first?
Protecting her.
Adrian waved Zack over and pointed toward Angela. “Stay by her, as close as you can until this is over.”
Kenn heard the protective order and started writing as Adrian began giving instructions, frowning. Why did Adrian’s first thoughts always cover her?
Angela spun around at that thought, glaring. “Why not? Yours never did!”
Adrian grinned at the open anger, hitting his radio. “That shield we made won’t hold for long. Camp members to the mess, Eagles to the bonfire.”
Adrian’s expression said he now had a plan to handle the colony circling above the shielded camp.
As he went to the com truck, Billy couldn’t stop from taking quick peeks at the shield, even though they were supposed to be pretending as if they’d helped to build it. The Eagle didn’t realize that in a way, they had. It wasn’t just the leaders who created magic, but the people they brought together and the things that came from those connections, that made it possible.
“What happens when we open it and they swarm down?” Kenn asked.
“We catch them. In these.” Adrian held up one of the crates. “And then we roast them.”
8
Kyle helped Jennifer up, not liking the ashen color of her skin. He slid a bloody hand around her waist, directing them toward the medical tent.
Jennifer stopped, tugging on his arm. “Hang on.”
“I can’t. I have to go help Adrian, and you need the doctor.”
Jennifer was still concentrating on her breathing. “I’m not in labor. No pain now, just a little queasy from lying down under the table.”
Kyle was torn. “Are you sure?”
“I’m fine.” Jennifer hid her clenched hands. “Go do your job.”
Kyle leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Go to John.”
He took off toward the center of the devastated camp.
As soon as he was out of sight, Jennifer moved toward the semi that the vet was still hiding in. “Come out. I need you to tell me something that no one else will.”
The semi door slowly rolled up, and Chris’s surly countenance appeared. “What?”
Jennifer tried to sound like she wouldn’t accept a lie. “How will Kyle honor his end of our deal?”
Chris instantly hated her distress and the man who was causing it. “He’ll use one of the whores who know it doesn’t mean anything. That’s what all of them do.”
9
“All right, watch Kenn and Brady for the setup and brace for a kick. The air-pressurized cans have recoil.”
The ten Eagles lined up on the far side of the fire, exchanging nervous, excited glances. This was one of the moments they’d signed up for–to discover if they had the steel to meet this new world and come out on the other side.
Shadows flickered eerily as they waited for Arian’s call, the bats above and the roaring of the now triple-sized bonfire the only noise.
“You ready?”
Samantha nodded, aware that Jeremy still wanted to protest. They had the camp members under canvas, the injured dragged inside, and now, they would take out the threat. Because of her time logged on hunting runs, Samantha been given the honor of helping to light the nets once the bats were trapped. “Yes.”
Adrian made eye contact with each of the team before holding up his hand, calming them and steeling nerves. When it dropped, the attack would resume.
It is my job.
Both unaware of the new battle about to begin, Dog followed Charlie’s angry march through the livestock perimeter, still stinging from his father’s laughter at finding the wolf sitting on him. All Marc had said was for him to get to the medical tent and help. He hadn’t even told the wolf to get up!
You’re going the wrong way. The master said go to the medical man.
“Bug off, Dog!”
Pups! the wolf snorted angrily. Didn’t Charlie understand the gates were opening? Nature was furious with man’s constant destruction. If she had her way, nightmares would be reality all the time.
Charlie marched faster, face a red glare that ignored gestures and shouts being thrown at him from crowded tent flaps. He’d spent the entire attack on the ground! Dog had no right to–
“Eeeekkkk!”
Charlie looked up in time to see the crimson shield flutter…and then vanish.
Run!
Dog’s order was followed b
y a hard nudge that got Charlie’s feet moving. The battle wasn’t over.
The bats swarmed down in a violent rush of hunger, and the teenager found himself once again being smothered by the wolf’s weight.
“Damn it!” Angela yelled.
Marc dropped his net and took off after her as she dodged the wings and ran for Charlie’s frantic shouts. What the hell was he still doing out in the open?
10
The Eagles hit the ground as the colony came in low and hard, and then jumped to their feet, hoisting guns loaded with nets.
Adrian held his button in. “Wait for it… Hold… Hold…”
The bats hit the empty camp and screeched in fury as they searched for food. Tents collapsed, and thuds and bangs echoed as they flew into trucks and trees in the chaos. The colony remerged on the updraft and circled back for the downward spiral that would drive the Eagles away from the huge bonfire, making the people easier targets.
“Hold...”
Lined up behind the fire, ten men tightened their fingers on the triggers.
The bats swarmed toward the center of camp, drawn by the sounds and movements of the waiting team.
“Hold…”
They neared fifty feet, and Adrian called, “Fire!”
Nets and alcohol flew out, widening as they went, to catch the brunt of the colony in the first shots. The nets brought the flying line to a halt and actually drove the first bunch into those behind them. More nets flew in from the sides, creating a trap.
Heavy bundles of rope fell into the roaring fire that Adrian had made them extend. The smell of roasting wings and fur permeated the air as the alcohol-doused nets (Sam’s very effective spray gun idea) caught fire. The screeching was endless.
“Fire!” Adrian ordered.
Kenn and Kyle hit the secondary net guns, and another large cluster of bats was brought down, hitting the edge of the flames and bouncing away in squalling protest.
“Get the ends!” Adrian shouted.
Daryl and Shawn quickly dragged the screeching net into the flames, gloves protecting their skin.
Adrian fired the last net-shell, wishing for a dozen more. After this, they were down to brooms and tennis rackets.