From the Ashes

by Angela White

  “Comin’!” Kevin replied, wincing.

  Kenn barked out nauseated amusement and stepped up his pace. “Do all of your women feel the way you do about having babies?”

  “Yes. We’ve been allowing the soldiers access to us in exchange for safety, but there are only a few of them that can have children, due to the wars they’ve been mired in.” Cara glanced over. “You’d ask for our help in exchange?”

  Kenn wasn’t sure the others would go for it. “Can you wake them up when we get there?”

  “Yes. We have herbs and such.”

  Kenn caught the tone. “You have an antidote, you mean.”

  Cara was pleased. “If our child has your intelligence, I will mold her into a leader.”

  Kenn didn’t say anything, torn with pride and an unfamiliar ache deep in his gut. He didn’t want kids…did he?

  6

  “Damn, I enjoyed that! I always hated those kids.”

  Garret frowned at Hudson and his new defensive wounds. The kids had obviously tried to fight back.

  “Emotional bonds make the perfect collateral. Don’t ever forget that.”

  “I never fought with them. Never touched one of Conner’s kids until today,” Hudson stated, happiness fading a bit.

  Garret turned from the reminder. No, Hudson knew better than to disobey orders. “You’re my one true man.”

  Hudson stood up straighter, feeling the orders about to flow. He loved these moments.

  “The snake clerks had a lot to say about their meeting,” Garret stated, full of anticipation. “Adrian’s men weren’t afraid to talk in front of the snakes and compare living situations. I want this Safe Haven.”

  Hudson felt the thrill of battle looming and welcomed it. Maybe Mitchel’s camp guards would be a challenge. He certainly hadn’t been. “I’ll set it up with the squad.”

  “Two-side attack formation, five teams per. Use the automatics, but remember to have them check for those on our list first. Then, kill everything he loves.”

  “What about the loose ends?” Hudson asked. They’d observed the movements on the tracker and assumed Adrian’s men were more immune to the drugs than most of their prey.

  Garret sank down into the comfy army chair that went everywhere he did. “What’s the best way to get an ant colony out of your yard?”

  Hudson, whose father had been an exterminator, answered, “Water, over and over. It drowns the larvae and ruins the walls. They collapse. If you keep doing it, the pests move.”

  “And we already have that coming, don’t we?”

  “Yes,” Hudson confirmed. “We do.”

  “Good. Dismissed,” Garret stated.

  Hudson slipped from the luxurious control room and spotted Embry and Lenore gliding down the dark hallway in oblivious joy. His unease over the orders to kill their men was instantly pushed aside.

  They didn’t know that the dam would blow at dawn, and what was left of this city would be washed away or submerged. It would be him, the Major’s personal squad, and their captives who survived.

  Which meant all bets were off, didn’t it?

  Hudson looked at his watch. Oh, yeah. He could take a twenty-minute break.

  Hudson followed the happily giggling couple toward the garden, seeing Embry’s dirty hand tangle in that pale hair and tug Lenore closer. As soon as they were in the green grass, Embry took her to the dusty ground.

  They made love fast, with a passion that had their observer hard and determined to be next.

  As Embry stiffened, groaning in pleasure, Hudson stepped from the shadows. “I’m up!”

  “What the hell are–”

  Hudson put his gun to Embry’s head and pulled the trigger.

  “No!” Lenore screamed.

  Embry fell heavily, blood running.

  “Guess that makes me next in line for you,” Hudson stated happily.

  “Help!”

  “Lenore, Lenore!” Hudson chanted over the screaming, jerking his belt loose. “Let me in, Lenore.”

  Lenore felt her mind blur into a gray area where only fear and hatred existed. It had been this way since the war. Only hoping to survive long enough to kill him, the captive woman held in her tears of grief and rage, and opened her legs.

  “Very good!”

  As he fell on her, Lenore’s hands immediately began searching Embry’s nearby body for his gun.

  7

  “Message, sir.”

  Garret moved away from the window where he liked to spend his waiting hours. The sight of the decay that surrounded them never failed to inspire. Unlike his men, he loved it here, and the deeply overcast skies were perfectly suited to his moods.

  The Major read over the radioman’s shoulder.

  “We are under evacuation. Radiation levels are critical in the east. The reserve bunker has been activated. Take Mitchel, Jr, and White, Angela, to Utah. Mitchel Sr. is to be terminated immediately.”

  “Tell them I’m happy to comply, as always.” The Major switched his attention to the modified cells on the screen, and then to the sullen teenager in the monitoring chair. “Go say goodbye.”

  Conner shot from the chair, almost running, and Garret grabbed his arm. He jerked the boy to a halt and gave him a hard shake. “Don’t forget our deal, son.”

  Conner twisted loose, expression ugly. “And don’t you forget it, either, dad. If those kids get hurt, you’re the first one I’ll kill!”

  Conner left the room, and the Major grinned cruelly. This was going to be fun. He got to break the father and the son, at the same time. Moments like these only came around once in a lifetime.

  Still smiling, Garret and his guards followed Conner into the basement cells they’d built. The control room was also located in the basement, separated by storage areas that were full. He wasn’t one to leave behind supplies.

  The wide room held a bank of computer screens and heavy-duty cords that brought in the power and allowed these men to control the entire complex. Positioned directly under the main home, it would be hard to take over unless the hunters didn’t suspect anything, and his men always did. He’d trained them that way.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  1

  “Time’s up,” Angela muttered as the basement door swung open.

  Adrian sensed it, too, but he only had eyes for the son under Garret’s control. I came back for you both. She sent me away.

  Conner didn’t doubt it. She was scared of him. She always was.

  She needed me.

  Conner shrugged, still answering silently, We needed you back then, but the war changed it all. He left and we thought we were free to come find you. He was always watching us.

  Adrian stood up, going to the bars. He spoke openly. “I’m sorry for everything you’ve gone through.”

  Conner found that he didn’t have any rage left. Adrian wasn’t his enemy. “I know.”

  “I’m also sorry for everything you still have to face,” Adrian stated, trying to prepare him for the ugliness he saw coming in Garret’s scornful expression.

  The Major delivered his sword tip. “You should be, since it’s your fault that the kids are dead. Hudson handled them upon our return.”

  Conner screamed, realizing the betrayal, and Garret swung, punching him in the mouth.

  “Dart him,” Garret ordered as Conner dropped to his knees.

  The closest guard shot Conner in the arm, and the teenager groaned, slumping to the floor.

  “One down,” Garret taunted. He pointed at Angela. “Come out.”

  The cell door buzzed open.

  Angela’s laugh was brittle. “So you can hurt me in front of Adrian for your next victory? Yeah, that’ll happen.”

  She slid off the bunk and backed up against the wall, as Kyle and Adrian stepped shoulder-to-shoulder in front of her. “Come in and get me, Major.”

  Garret pointed his gun at Conner. “If you don’t come out, I’ll kill him.”

  “Your orders say he has to be alive,�
� Angela sneered. “Nice tr–”

  Pop!

  “No!”

  Conner’s leg began pouring blood, and Angela screamed again, in rage this time. “You’ll die for that!”

  “Dart her!” a young voice insisted in panic over the intercom. “She still has her powers!”

  “We have a breach!” the Major’s personal guard shouted from the door. In his hand, the scanner was flashing brilliantly.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

  “Major! We need you! Now!”

  Gunfire outside reluctantly drew the Major and his guards. They all rushed from the room as Garret threw an angry order over his shoulder. “I want them ready for transport! Knock her out. She goes upstairs.”

  2

  “He says he’s Mitchel’s XO,” the gate guard stated nervously.

  There was only one man standing outside the compound gates, but the monitors showed nearly forty green dots in the area. Despite their deals, it would seem that Adrian’s loose ends had found some help after all.

  Garret considered the uses and hesitantly stopped the guards from opening fire as they wanted to. “Stand down.”

  The hunters frowned, but obediently stepped back.

  The Major waved his personal guards along and strode confidently outside. He didn’t need Mitchel’s right hand as leverage. However, he was always on the lookout for more useful men to add to his collection. Like the Italian killer in Adrian’s cell. Garret occasionally made exceptions in race when the man was useful, but Kyle would be gelded. Continuing that line, in this country, was now illegal.

  Garret waited for the guards to open the iron gate they’d installed in their first days here, and then stepped out to meet the lone Marine standing in the middle of his street. The Major would have known what Kenn was without picking out the dog tags and tattoos. It was in those steel blue eyes and firmly planted boots.

  He’s set to kill me, Garret thought, starting to think he might need to scour Adrian’s top people for new hands. Adrian knew how to pick hard men, no argument there.

  “If you kill me, he dies,” the Major warned.

  Kenn could feel Adrian somewhere inside that well-fortified building, and the silent order was clear. Adrian wanted this man dead, but Kenn already knew he wouldn’t be the one to do it.

  “I’m surrendering.”

  Garret frowned slightly. “With your gun in hand?”

  “Surrender, not suicide,” Kenn replied, taking in how many, where to hit, and accepting that his hopes of rushing inside were unrealistic.

  Garret chuckled. “Just you? Where are the rest of his men?”

  Kenn scowled. “You don’t have them in there?”

  The Major gloated. “Guess they didn’t survive the snakes and vines.”

  Kenn took a step forward in mock rage.

  Garret raised his own weapon. “Stop.”

  Kenn did, playing the role. “I go where he goes.”

  Garret shook his head, frowning at the sense of danger. The Italian might be a well-heeled killer, but this man was lethal.

  “I think not.” The Major pointed toward his tower guard. “He’ll kill you in three seconds.”

  Kenn was loose and ready. “I only need one.”

  Garret hesitated to give the order. His death was in that 9mm, even if the Marine died, too.

  The Major tried to calm things down, recognizing a kindred soul. “You can’t save him. He’s been marked for termination.”

  Kenn growled. “By who? You?”

  “He’s been on my list for almost two decades,” Garret stated, subtly motioning his hunters to kill, not capture, when it started. “The official order came down today. The government has declared him a threat to national recovery.”

  Kenn took that in with no change in expression, but inside, worry boiled. The government was finally rearing its ugly head. “I can pay a bounty.”

  Garret was surprised, but played along. “You can’t afford the pound of flesh he owes, let alone the final reward.”

  “Will you trade something for him? I have access to a lot of the old world.”

  Garret laughed, scornfully taunting. “I take what I want!”

  Kenn had expected that, but he’d had to try. It was what Adrian had taught him. “Then, take this!”

  Kenn pushed the button in his pocket.

  Booommm!

  The front of the shopping complex across from them exploded, sending shrapnel flying over the street. Flames and acrid smoke rolled their way.

  Kenn hit the button a second time and the small house next to the compound gushed outward in a violet eruption of flames and wooden slugs.

  Garret ran, given cover by his guards, and Kenn unslung his rifle, ducking behind the edge of the alley wall from the firing tower guards. The Major was quickly out of sight, but his men weren’t.

  Hunters began falling, screaming in agony from well-chosen shots. Garret should have at least listened to the deal. He’d insulted Kenn, and there was a price to pay for that.

  Pop-pop-pop!

  3

  “Step aside!” Angela hissed, sweating furiously.

  The second they were clear, she released the ball of energy and blew the door off their cell.

  Before they recovered from the blast, she was at Conner’s side.

  “Help! The prisoners are...Ahhhh!”

  Kyle and Adrian were hoping that sound over the intercom meant their lost men had found them. They weren’t prepared to see the snake clerk from the tunnels come through the door.

  Cara rushed to Conner and began helping Angela as she searched for the slug with her fingers.

  “I’m your ride,” Cara told them, holding the cloth where Angela pointed.

  Adrian looked around. “I think we’re ready.”

  Conner stirred, surprising those who knew he’d been darted.

  Angela motioned to Kyle. “Grab him. I’ve got your six.”

  The mobster didn’t hesitate, and Cara led the way to the door. She liked working with people who were as organized as she and her group were.

  Kyle left the Major’s control center the same way he’d entered it–walking single file, carrying an unconscious loved one. For Kyle, Adrian’s son was like Adrian himself, to be protected. It was also a flashback to the rest stop, but this time, Kyle was glad to find it held little power over him. He’d survived it. That was a ghost he could finally let rest.

  “This way.” Cara led them through the debris-laden alley behind the brick building that only Kyle had viewed upon entering. His first thought, Now, that’s a fortified place, still held. From bars over windows with currently unmanned gun-pods, to the razor wire and dead spotlights, the Major knew how to shelter-in-place while he got a job done.

  Kyle was impressed with everything about Garret’s setup and plan, except for the man himself. The soda bottles in place of lights and solar generators for the rest of their lighting was very efficient, as were the solar dehydrators and small farms on each rooftop. The only thing that kept this from being a perfect compound, despite the evil running it, seemed to be Garret’s lack of consistent correction. After his own background and then being with Adrian so long, Kyle had recognized the dooming flaw almost instantly. If Garret let one kill or steal from him, but beat another for backtalk, it sent out mixed vibes that caused dissension. Leaders had to remain leaders. Now, if Garret had immediately killed Adrian as soon as he’d had him in custody, it would have been over. Adrian had also made mistakes, but Garret hadn’t caught them.

  Bang!

  The gunfire was directly behind them, and Cara took off running.

  It quickly became keep up if you can, and the three of them were careful not to lose sight of each other, though, they had to guess on Cara’s direction more than once.

  Cara took them toward their waiting men, and then away from the meeting place. She scaled the broken walls and mounds of filth as if they weren’t even there, increasing speed.

  They tried to keep up with
her, but unlike Conner, who’d been leading, Cara was now evading. After only minutes, they were lost, and Cara was gone.

  “But we’re free,” Adrian told Angela when she would have complained. “Just be grateful and go back to caring for yourself. Rookie lesson X, one we haven’t covered yet.”

  Angela took it in humbly. He was right. Cara had risked her life to help them, though they didn’t know why. During the run, there hadn’t been time to ask.

  “Where to?” Kyle asked.

  “We hunker down and watch for a signal,” Adrian stated, eyeing the lengthening shadows. “We can’t be out here walking when night falls, unless there’s no other choice.”

  Angela and Kyle began searching for a shelter in their surroundings.

  Adrian gently took Conner’s weight into his arms. Heavy and awkward, it was still the first time he’d held his son in a very long time. It was something he would cherish now, in case there wasn’t a later.

  “Rooftop or trees?” Kyle asked, missing his Glock.

  “Rooftop,” Adrian chose, adjusting Conner’s weight so that he could elevate the leg a little.

  Kyle pointed. “I suggest that transmitter tower. It has a small utility stair that you can usually only see from one side. Just need to scavenge some cover along the way.”

  Adrian nodded to Angela, “Give him that pissy little thing Marc insisted you carry on your thigh. He might be able to put someone’s eye out with it.”

  Angela grinned. She’d said about the same thing.

  She handed it over and gave a slight frown when she saw Kyle take a quick sniff of it. What the hell was that?

  “Let’s go.”

  Kyle took point, and Angela fell in between them, hands resting on empty holsters.

  Around them, the silence was nerve-wracking.

  They moved steadily south, feet crunching through layers of debris while even more began to hide them from view. They stepped lightly around and through horror, wood, and death, and it didn’t take them long to realize there was a path. Angela picked out the trails in each direction, barely visible as they wound through collapsed houses, burned businesses, and upended, reshaped cars. Their feet squelched, sometimes sinking alarmingly.