From the Ashes

by Angela White

  “Move in!” Major Garret ordered.

  A second wave of bounty hunters ran by the entrapped men in the ropes.

  The hunters didn’t wear hats, but black bandanas that instantly reminded the team of Rick. It made the bounty hunters into walking targets that the team looked forward to shooting as soon as they’d rescued the kids.

  “This way!” Conner shouted.

  Adrian followed. Underground was where they needed to go, where Conner would have his charges stashed. “Eagles with me!”

  Slat! Ding!

  Five Eagles dropped into the hole Conner knelt by, and Angela vanished into it behind them.

  “Switch!”

  The cold order gave the team a brief second’s respite as the bounty men changed from darts to bullets.

  Kenn shoved Adrian into the hole and then followed him. The last two men to come through were Daryl and Doug. Both of them were wounded, but Conner already had the group moving through the dank darkness.

  “Count off!” Adrian shouted.

  “Two,” Angela called, trying to wrap Doug’s arm as they ran through the murky sewer.

  The check-in didn’t take long to complete, “Twenty-five!” and Adrian flipped on his light. He did a quick visual check of his crew, and then took the place behind Conner’s quickly pumping heels.

  Behind them, there was no sound of pursuit, and Conner hit the light on his belt. The double illumination allowed the team to view the filth and muck they were running through. Snakeskins, molding vines climbing dark, dripping walls and thick corners of mushrooms greeted them. Then the smell hit, and a few of the team gagged.

  “Are we far enough?” Kenn demanded, finger on the button.

  “Leave it, let them gather,” Adrian answered.

  “But we’ll miss–”

  “Leave it!”

  Adrian’s annoyance earned Kenn frowns from those closest. Kenn had done a lot of training, but on runs like this, he was almost a rookie. Kenn was valuable in the office, but he was the tripping-over-himself Platoon commander that every team leader both scorned and used to their advantage. He hadn’t been that way before the war, but his time in Safe Haven and Adrian’s choice to keep him off an official team, had changed everything for Kenn.

  Angela tied a strap around Daryl’s leg–it would have been funny if they weren’t in such a hurry–and got back up on Adrian’s left, where he wanted her.

  “Gets low here!” Conner called from ahead, sounding like he was having a good time. There was no mistaking the cheer in that tone.

  The adults ducked suddenly as the walls and floor sloped upward, but the ceiling didn’t rise with them. A drainage route, Adrian thought.

  Running through a dank sewer while hunched over allowed for only a limited view squinted against the splashes of so many feet. It kept them from seeing what they were about to hit.

  “Hold your breath for ten seconds. Don’t stop!” Conner ordered.

  Adrian heard Angela’s dismayed groan and quickly reached out to take an iron grip on her wrist. Close by and aware of her fears, Kenn did the same, and the two men led her into the stagnant water.

  2

  Angela didn’t struggle, but she didn’t try to help them, either. She was totally disoriented, with no idea which way to propel herself. She spent the time listening.

  Big ripple. Daryl into the water with them.

  Smaller ripple–Lee’s wiry body.

  An enormous splash. Doug, in the rear, told her they’d all made it in.

  Adrian yanked Angela above the surface and pulled her aside so that Kenn could come up through the narrow opening. He slung her arm over his shoulders as she gasped in air and hefted her onto the concrete. He let go and did the same for himself as quickly as he could.

  Only one could come through at a time, and Adrian knelt at the hole, jerking men through. Twenty-five had to come out.

  Lee’s thin frame bobbed to the surface and was grabbed, hauled up.

  “One more!” the man gasped out, face an alarming shade of red.

  “Where’s Doug?” Angela asked.

  Adrian saw the water start to settle and responded accordingly. He dove back through the narrow opening.

  “No!” Kenn shouted. “Get him back!”

  Angela grabbed Kenn before he could jump in. “He’s okay.”

  Adrian’s head broke the surface, as did Doug’s a second later. Adrian sucked in a quick breath and then dove back under to push.

  Doug coughed heavily, clinging to the side, and Eagle hands gripped him anywhere they could get a solid hold.

  Adrian heaved from the bottom, Doug’s ass centered on his shoulder, and the big man shot out of the water and flopped onto the concrete.

  Adrian joined him seconds later, gasping. “We’re not...going back...that way.”

  Eagles chuckled.

  Conner left them alone for a moment, but he never stopped watching the water. He wasn’t concerned about the dark tunnel behind him, the one they had to traverse next, but standing water was dangerous. His group hadn’t been underground for an hour before learning that brutal lesson.

  Eagles dried off, but they didn’t change clothes. Angela followed their lead, despite the way some of their eyes were going over her wet shirt and pants, and then darting away. They couldn’t view much through the front, the vest prevented it, but the sides of her clothes clung to damp swells that even in the dark, marked her different than the rest of Adrian’s army.

  “We should go,” Conner stated.

  The scold in his tone was evident, and Angela was a bit surprised when the Eagles responded. Apologetic looks were thrown, and men took steps back.

  Adrian swallowed his pride and motioned to the door. “You’re the guide.”

  Conner immediately took up a double-time run into the darkness.

  “Shit!” Adrian darted after him, catching Angela’s wrist to be certain she was next.

  Kenn again provided the security sandwich, and the others hurried to catch up.

  3

  “This way.”

  Conner stopped suddenly, bending down to pull on a moldy piece of wood. A gaping black hole appeared, and the teenager disappeared down into it without a word.

  The Eagles frowned.

  Adrian shined his light as Kyle and Kenn descended ten feet to find Conner standing to the left of the ladder. They were at an intersection where dark, wet and dripping tunnels branched out in four directions.

  Conner waited until they were all down and ready, staring at Angela instead of the father that he’d begun to doubt would come for him.

  Always take the farthest tunnel to the left, Angela delivered Conner’s message silently. Those to the left are mostly flooded.

  Angela stopped searching the floor and began looking down the other tunnels they were passing. The bones down here could fill two cemeteries.

  “How many people are down here?” Kenn asked. “Are there a lot of you?”

  “That depends on what you mean,” Conner said, winding them through stacks of supplies in crates and buckets. Each of these had a large red X on them that the team took to mean they were spoiled.

  “We’re not the only ones, but me and the kids don’t have anything to do with most of them.” Conner’s firm statement was accompanied by his footsteps starting into the dimness. “There are thirty-one kids and at least twice that number of adults in our sector, but like I said, we’re not part of their group, and we don’t help each other.”

  Adrian was busy noting things. The boy hadn’t been corrupted despite being abandoned. In fact, he was clearly stronger. That protective tone was impossible to miss.

  “You’ll take me to talk with them?” Adrian asked.

  “Yes,” Conner agreed reluctantly, still unable to deny that timbre anything.

  There was heavy bitterness in the one word, and Angela’s mind went to the child’s words on the tape.

  “The grownups left us.”

  How could they do that
? Would Adrian let them into Safe Haven?

  No, I won’t, but I can’t leave them as hunted animals either.

  Understanding and agreeing, Angela walked between Adrian and Conner so that she could play mediator if it were needed.

  And because he makes you feel safe, the witch stated.

  Angela didn’t deny it. Adrian was the light.

  “I have to make a stop,” Conner informed them.

  Adrian slowed when Conner did.

  Behind him, grunts and groans of relief echoed. They’d kept the fast pace for the better part of hour.

  “You guys should be quiet,” Conner stated uneasily.

  Angela stayed at Adrian’s side as Conner tapped three times on a huge stone door. Set into the wall, Angela thought she would have missed it if Conner hadn’t stopped.

  “Who isss it?” a female voice called.

  “Conner, for trading,” Conner replied.

  The door immediately began to roll open.

  The mission team stared in surprise at the underground market. Shelves and tables, crates and boxes were what they picked out first, but the clerks running this bonanza caught and then held their attention.

  The women wore some sort of shiny decoration, their boots and long gloves were covered in them. The small sequins caught the light of homemade candles anchored to the damp walls, and cast eerie forms along the tables. The shiny decorations were in their hair and covering the packs they wore on their. A few of them even had the decorations sewn over their gray trousers and shirts, giving a sensual, frightening impression of a room full of dangerously glinting women.

  Angela classified them that way for many reasons, not the least of which was the blowguns and rows of needle darts on their belts. These females knew how to survive, clearly, but the way they had adapted was amazing.

  Conner eased into the room and the adults followed slowly, staring. There was an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables, and even producing plants for sale, but the gallon jugs of clear water drew Angela. Apparently, Conner needed the same, because he went straight for them, too.

  As the team came closer, they realized the shiny decorations were scales and the respect went up. The team hadn’t seen the sewer snakes yet, but the size of the skins and the amount of scales the women were using implied that the reptiles were large and numerous.

  The clerk behind the low table stepped closer to her stock as she got a look at the hard-asses lingering by the slowly closing door.

  “Three gallons,” Conner instructed.

  The clerk’s eyes swung back to Conner, and Angela wasn’t able to place exactly what it was about these merchants that she didn’t like. They wore the same mismatched clothes covered in dirt; they even had the same abused auras, but there was something else...

  “Let’sss see your cash.”

  Angela gaped. The clerk sounded like a snake!

  Conner pulled the gun from his jacket pocket and slid it onto the plank. “Five bullets left. Use ‘em in good health.”

  The clerk made the gun vanish before Angela could blink.

  “Deal. Anything elsesss or change?”

  Conner pointed toward a basket of dried apple slices. “Use the rest on those.”

  “No meatsss?”

  Conner shook his head. “I don’t like snake meat. I trap coons and badgers, a rabbit or two when luck’s with me.”

  The clerk nodded. “As do most since the mutations began showing up in reptiles.” Cara grimaced miserably. “Until we broke free of the prison, rodents and the like were all we had.”

  Angela sensed the lie, but didn’t remark on it.

  Conner reached out, putting a hand on the woman’s arm. “Thank you for the trade.”

  She smiled hotly at him, burning with a feverish light she knew he could see, if not sense. “You won’t reconsider my previous offer?”

  Conner blushed. “No.”

  Snake woman took a step back, making his arm fall. “Then stop touching me or the choice will no longer be yours to make!”

  Eagles stepped closer at the threat, but Conner only laughed. “Pretend for them, but don’t bullshit me, Cara. You’re Garret’s girl. You won’t sacrifice that.”

  Cara glared in defeat. “No, but it doesn’t stop the want.”

  She tried to get herself under control. “What about your friendsss? Are they buying?”

  Conner raised a brow.

  Adrian opened his hand, revealing a number of small gold and silver ingots. “Whatever you need.”

  Conner sneered, but didn’t refuse the generosity. “They only want me, not supplies, so load them up. My father’s buying.”

  The room went still...and then cold as the snake clerks glared. This man had left the gifted boy to rot here.

  Adrian faced them without anger, but also without guilt. The only one he had to answer to was his son.

  4

  “The Major’s coming.”

  About to hit his favorite romance scene, Hudson marked his place in the book. It was one of three intact paperbacks he owned and liked to use to make the other bounty men jealous. The Major didn’t want too many of his crew acting smart or thinking, and Hudson was the only one allowed to keep the materials. The fact that Hudson had them booby-trapped and was lethal with his knife had probably helped that choice.

  “Say it again.”

  Despite the fact that he couldn’t see much of Embry’s face through the bandana he wore unfolded, Hudson disliked it immensely. If not for those sharp brown eyes that were so good at recognizing risky opportunities, Embry would have been placed lower in Garret’s crew. Then, Lenore would already be in Hudson’s cot at night. Those wide hips and thick legs would be perfect for passing the long nights of waiting for Mitchel to show.

  “Major Garret is coming to talk to you.”

  Hudson was instantly uneasy. He must think the new people are a real threat, Hudson deduced. Most groups that had come through Little Rock had stayed low and quiet, but this one was the opposite. They had to know they were being followed, but they showed few signs of worry. They might be a harder caliber, and Hudson became glad the Major was on top of things.

  “He’s here,” Embry whispered in awed admiration.

  Hudson gestured rudely. “Get lost, Em, while we talk.”

  Embry spun, sputtering in protest, and the Major supported his XO.

  “Get lost.”

  Embry flushed at the order and vanished into the lines of snickering, elbowing bounty hunters that made up Garret’s personal guard.

  The Major signaled for the lines of men behind him to fall out of sight, and then leaned toward his top explosives man. “Get up to the dam and set a surprise for dawn.”

  “We floodin’ this shit-hole?” Hudson asked. He’d wanted to do that when they’d first arrived here.

  Garret confirmed it. “Yes. We’ve been here for months. It’s time to finish it and go.”

  “But our men–” Hudson stated to protest.

  “Have served their time. Give them an honorable discharge. It’s time to roll.”

  Garret hated Hudson’s way of rubbing his fat, crooked nose when he was deep in thought and switched attention to something more pleasant–like the blood on Hudson’s army boots.

  Hudson understood. The Major never left before he got his man, not once in the twenty years they’d been together. “That’s Mitchel down there! We’re in the homestretch.”

  Garret was pleased, but also uneasy at the intelligence. “And that’s why you have my right, Hud. Now, do as I said and do it right, like usual.”

  Hudson swelled at the praise and went in a fast trot. Life was good.

  The line of hunters taking up perimeter places and lying low around the Major didn’t react to the order. Garret was as apt to kill as to sleep, but they were wired the same. Sympathy and empathy were things the Major’s chosen guards didn’t have.

  5

  It took a little while for the clerks to fill the order. Conner kept pointing
to things, and the clerks kept loading the team up. Only Kenn and Kyle weren’t given a pack, at Adrian’s orders. Those lethal hands needed to be free for protection.

  Conner saw the clerk approach Adrian. Cara was glowering despite the nice chunk of profit she and her girls would get from this transaction.

  “If you leave him here this time, he will die,” she stated, scales on her wrist glinting in bright warning.

  Shorter than the rest, it was still clear that Cara was in charge. Her scales were brighter, almost golden, and her braids were woven around the top of her head in a coil. Her painted face (heavy blue around both eyes and black lipstick) glared out to make her different from her girls. Her markings said, Pay attention, I’m the leader here.

  Adrian took the heavy bag without complaint or answer. He had no intentions of leaving the boy again.

  Annoyed at the silence and worried for Conner, Cara lowered her voice. “The hunters are coming for him!”

  She spun away before Adrian could ask when.

  Kenn got a whiff of Cara as she moved away and couldn’t stop the vague interest in her as she walked away. Nice ass. Too bad.

  Adrian picked out things the others missed. The females had baskets of dried and drying meat in the corners, telling Adrian they’d been allowed to operate down here for a while. He wondered what they’d used for bartering with Major Garret. They also had weapons, which meant the kids might, as well. Adrian narrowed in on the carpet-layered walls and wondered how many exits were had hidden behind them.

  Adrian stared at the clerks, picking up their resentment, but also their concern for his son. Conner had his own army here. Did he know it?

  “They won’t fight. Not unless I agree to Cara’s deal,” Conner stated as they waited for the stone door to be opened. “She wants a marriage and to merge the kids into their group. Without telling the Major, of course.”

  Conner led them into the darkness without any change of tone. “I’ve considered it, but they kill the males, so I had to tell her no.”

  “How long until we get to wherever we’re going?” Kenn asked.