by Angela White
It was Kyle who answered, clearly worried. “Because another city’s burning, boss. They’ve taken Casper. The smoke will be visible to everyone when we clear the trees.”
Adrian dug into the pockets of his jacket for a smoke, acting as if he hadn’t known. “So they have enough men to scout this camp, follow you, and sack a city–all at the same time?”
Neil came alive as he picked up Adrian’s thought. “We can do it. We’re ready.”
Adrian sighed, noting that Kyle had clamped down on a protest. He already knew it wasn’t true. They were good, yes, but that good? Not yet. They needed another six to eight weeks.
“These people aren’t ready. If we did it now, we might as well keep going. We’d be starting yet another war we can’t be sure of finishing, and there will never be support here for that.” Adrian shrugged resignedly. “For now we’ll double the security, increase the number of Levels we start each month, and get out of sight for a while.”
Both guards heard the tone and knew Adrian was thinking of all the people who would likely die in their place. Neil was sure their leader would change his mind, but he didn’t.
“We need to make some real distance. Don’t hold anything in when people ask about your run,” Adrian instructed.
“They’re going to keep following.”
Kyle nodded his agreement.
“This is your job, gentlemen. Protect her quietly, though. The herd can’t find out yet, not like this. We have to buy her time to win them over.”
“How have things been here?” Kyle asked, seeing Kenn was busy getting everything ready to roll.
“Interesting.”
Adrian’s tone caught their attention. They followed his line of sight to Angela, who was sitting at his center table, laughing sweetly at something Doug had said.
“She’s one of us–an Eagle in disguise. I want you to encourage it, let her have the lead if possible. I need to know how strong she is.”
Both men were wondering the same thing, but neither was able to imagine the other men accepting a female.
“I have it covered,” Adrian assured them.
“What about the slavers?” Neil asked.
Adrian’s face tightened. “I’m working on it.”
Feeling like he’d overstepped, Neil was apologetic. “His people won’t travel as hard as ours will when they discover Casper’s gone.”
Adrian shrugged again, knowing guilt would keep him up tonight. “He’ll send men to keep track of us, maybe even try to slow us down. We’ll have to scout and clear before we roll.”
“My team will handle that personally. We’ll take support, but only Level Six Eagles will clear the road,” Kyle stated.
Adrian nodded again, thinking the mobster had grown into his destiny faster than anyone else so far. “We leave in one hour. You two should talk to Billy and some of the others before we go, catch up on what’s been happening here. See Kenn for your driving schedules and adjust where you need to.”
“What about today’s route?”
Adrian’s tone was pleased as he turned away. “We’re not taking a road. We’re gonna roll right through these Black Hills.”
Adrian spotted Marc and the wolf walking through the small crowds of packing people, and signaled them over.
“You have things for me?” Adrian asked.
When Adrian wasted no time with small talk, Marc understood he was worried, and found that he didn’t like it any more than the rest of Adrian’s camp did.
“Yes. After the call, I finished that plan you asked for. It’s good.”
“How good?”
“For us, the casualty rate is three to four percent. For them, ninety-five percent at least, but it’ll have to be set up just right to get these kinds of results.”
The three pages were quickly put into his pocket, and Adrian planned to read them while Kenn drove. He’d told Neil no for an attack now, but they had to start getting ready for it. The battle was inevitable, and when the time came, he would kill every one of the foreign invaders or die trying.
2
Trouble!
Jeremy strode to the shower camper in an alert manner that the other guards took note of even in the chaos of a travel day. The new woman was surrounded by a group of females and all of them looked ready to fight.
As he neared them, Jeremy noticed the new woman–Samantha–wasn’t backing away. She didn’t give the impression that she was scared, only angry, and Jeremy obeyed the instinct that said to wait and see how she handled it.
“You can say that because you weren’t there!” one of the women stated, hand on her hip. “You didn’t almost die there!”
“I escaped after being raped, you snotty twit!” The truth rolled out of Samantha’s mouth with a harsh snarl. “And I still say we should fight!”
Silenced for a moment, the others scrutinizing her in disbelief.
Samantha read their thoughts with ease and let out another rough sound of private misery and dangerous fury. “Call me a liar! I dare you.”
Jeremy wanted to wait, but he knew two of the females lurking in the rear of the group were about to accept that challenge.
“Is there a problem, ladies?”
He sounded so much like Adrian that all of them flinched.
Samantha stared. It was the guard from the creek. She hadn’t run into him again since then. He was closer now, enough for her to discover the attraction he held for her, and she felt a blush spread over her cheeks. Really?
“Just getting to know the newbie,” one of the girls answered.
“Play nice,” Jeremy warned. “Or maybe Adrian will reverse his choice on female punishments. You could end up digging toilet holes with Kenn.”
There was an immediate flare of hatred, but no response other than short glares thrown toward Sam.
Instead of thanking him, Samantha turned away. She didn’t need anyone to defend her. She was learning to do that herself.
Jeremy watched her thoughtfully. She needed a friend.
3
Angela blew out a restless sigh and gently braked as the semi in front of her came to an almost complete stop, before shifting gears and crawling along again. They were driving through a wooded area with nothing but thin trees and brown weeds, and while she applauded Adrian’s choice, it was frustrating and almost painful for her.
They were going so slow that the emotions (ghosts) of the places they were creeping by were coming to her in strong, hurtful waves. They were full of death scenes and madness, but the cries of the living were worse. Overflowing with heartbreak and desperation, Angela had to force herself not to reach out to them, unsure what to do. This door was usually shut to her.
She planned to talk to Adrian about each thing like this that came up, but she couldn’t tell him over the radio. Charlie would hear and she couldn’t allow that yet. Charlie and Dog were riding with the vet, the teenager still giving her, and now everyone else, the cold treatment after his day of hard labor for fighting. Something like this was exactly what he didn’t need to know how to do. It would put him at risk because he would use it without caution in his anger, and people would discover the truth. That meant toughing it out.
The truck braked again, and Angela clamped down on a four letter word, sweeping the two men riding with her. Kenn’s initials on her schedule told her he had been the one to put her in the vehicle with the mining men, and he hadn’t been happy when Neil and Kyle had traded their places in sleep-n-ride bunks to the older men she was supposed to be riding with. It had been a neat switch, though, no time for her Marine to argue. Like Marc, Angela had been trying to place the chain of command since they’d gotten here. After this morning, she now knew she was looking at third and fourth in Adrian’s army. The question was, what were they doing with her? Adrian’s orders? Marc’s cautions? Curiosity?
Angela tensed as a fresh swell of agony hit her. This one was a small group of starving kids, and it was a struggle to keep her foot on the gas pedal. She didn�
��t want to pass them up. I want to help!
“Are you okay?” Kyle asked tiredly from the backseat.
“Fine. Why?” she asked quickly.
Kyle sat up, looking at her in the mirror as Neil stirred restlessly in the reclined passenger seat. “Because we feel it, strongly.”
Angela cringed, and switched her vision to the truck that was finally moving faster. “Feel what?”
“Something is bothering you,” Neil answered. “Spit it out, so we can get some sleep.”
She flushed, and Kyle frowned at Neil, held up a hand. “He doesn’t mean it like that. Tell us what’s up. It’s why we’re with you.”
Both of them were staring at her expectantly, and Angela kept her sight on the truck in front of them, not wanting to witness their disbelief.
“He’s passing up people and supplies, and I can’t tell him over the radio.”
Kyle hesitated, raised a thick brow. “You can’t…send it to him?”
Angela was struggling to breathe at the openness. “Not right now, and since it’s my fault you’re all in danger–”
“They were already coming for us,” Kyle interrupted firmly. “It’s not anyone’s fault. If we’re passing things you think Adrian wants or needs, tell us, and we’ll handle it.”
Angela was stunned. Where were the questions and snide remarks?
“College kids and fuel tankers.”
Neil sat up and immediately took the mike from its holder. “Three to Base, request leave to pull out for a short recon.”
“In sight?”
Neil looked at Angela, who shook her head, surprised that they not only believed her, but also that she could go along.
“Negative.”
“Roger. Cars six and eight will provide escort. Half hour check-ins. Happy hunting.”
“Copy, out.”
Neil hung up the mike as two jeeps fell out of the line ahead of them, waiting. “Let’s go. The fuel, not the people. Adrian will send a team for them.”
Angela didn’t glance at Marc as she passed him and the stinking livestock truck he’d been put behind, wondering if he would stay here and let these strangers care for her.
“We’ll need you to tell us what you can,” Kyle said, checking gear in the kit at his feet.
When Neil gave his agreement, hands busy doing the same, Angela felt a large chunk of that outsider shell crack and fall off. Adrian had known instantly how much she had to offer, and she would start helping right now, by giving him something he wanted–more sheep.
Passing derelict beef ranches and wheat fields, Angela drove confidently over roads she had never been on and used her gift, pushing, trying to get the kids into position. Move to the tankers. Help is coming.
“Angie?”
Kyle’s voice was so much like Marc’s at that moment that she responded as if he were, forgetting her fear. “There are five of them, three women. One of them is pregnant, but I don’t think she knows. The fuel is at an airport near them.”
Both men were thinking that her voice didn’t sound right.
While Neil studied the maps, Angela got Kyle’s attention in the mirror, sure he would be sympathetic. “They’re just kids. No threat. I want to help them.”
Kyle shrugged, willing enough, but Neil frowned. His orders were clear, and they came from more than one man–keep her unharmed at all costs.
“No. We get the gasoline and let a team come through later.”
Angela was determined to help the starving survivors. “They’ll run. The three of us won’t feel like such a threat. I’ll be able to talk to them.”
“What about the two jeeps of men behind us?” Kyle asked, wondering if this would be the time Neil used his higher rank.
“Someone has to get the tankers,” she suggested.
“No. They’ll both be pissed that I put you in danger.”
Angela glared at Neil with a tight annoyance that Kyle recognized from his months with Adrian. She would deliver the final blow next. The stories they’d been quickly told hadn’t been exaggerations.
“Yes, your ass. Let’s talk about that, Neil. Will he take a bigger chunk if we do it now and bring in more people, one of them carrying the next generation of Americans? Or if we don’t, because I might break a nail, and they’re gone when you come back, taken by the slavers?”
The silence was deafening.
Kyle regarded her with new respect.
Neil blew out a frustrated breath. The only sheep Adrian wanted more than females were pregnant females.
They were both shocked that she understood how powerful a weapon she’d chosen.
Neil began unbuttoning his shirt. “At least put on my vest so they don’t think I’m a complete idiot. Pull over. We’ll wait outside.”
Angela did it quickly, suddenly feeling a bit nervous, and a short five minutes later, they were traveling over a weed-dotted, two-lane road. The Rapid City airport rose out of the gritty skyline like a dark omen. Nothing moved except glints off broken Christmas bulbs that framed dark and dirty windows.
Angela felt their tension growing as the wind picked up, whining eerily. The Eagles didn’t like it here at all.
They rolled slowly over pieces of the twisted, rusting, airport gate, and the row of fuel tankers were the first thing they picked out, all the way in the rear.
“We’ll be checking ‘ports from now on. I never even thought about it.”
“Yeah, makes sense. Have to have normal fuel for their trucks and things.”
The two men swept the shadows. When they were near the middle of the vast lot, Kyle held up a hand. “Stop here.”
Angela kept her foot on the brake as the two jeeps flanked her, and she tried hard to perceive what they did.
There were two long, empty, grassy runways, and a large, dark main terminal building with many shadowy doorways. Three big, faded, red and white passenger planes were lined up near the fuel tankers like forgotten toys, and numerous small outbuildings and vehicles littered the area, most damaged. There were also charred places on the weedy concrete and an overturned security car in front of the burnt frame of a city bus.
Angela saw the two Eagles exchange worried glances.
“We need more men,” Kyle stated.
“But they’ll run awa–”
“We cannot secure an area this size with only eight Eagles.”
Kyle’s voice was firm, and Neil handed him the mike, letting the guard do his job.
“Four to Base. We have six A3’s and need drivers, plus two full Levels for security. Someone is on the way to meet you where we left.”
“Copy, Four. Cars seven, ten, fourteen, and twenty-one are on the way.”
The jeep to her right pulled away, able to feel their relief at having more men coming, but she wasn’t sure what they were so worried about. Yes, there was a bad feeling here, but it was mostly like the other places she’d been. Empty.
Are you sure? the witch questioned quietly from her cell.
Angela frowned. No, she wasn’t. After the call, she’d forced the witch into her cage, scared of the camp finding out. Except when she was with Adrian, she hadn’t used the power at all.
“What is it?”
She concentrated, but there was only darkness. The rustle of her jeans was loud in the silence as she shifted restlessly. “Something might not be right here.”
“What?”
Angela turned to view the driver on their left. “Not sure yet.”
Seth, the driver on their left, flipped off his engine, and she did the same.
The silence was thick as they waited, listening to the total nothingness around them.
“The kids are here. I got them to come,” she said suddenly. “Don’t let anyone shoot. They’re not the danger we feel.”
Angela unsnapped her holster with a smooth movement, and the two men exchanged looks again, thinking of their conversations with the Eagles. Definitely not the same as the other women in Safe Haven.
“I can�
��t wait,” Angela said suddenly. “They’re about to run. There’s still too many of us.”
Kyle noted only a single shadow near the planes as Angela opened her door.
“Stay here for a minute so she doesn’t take off. That’s our soon-to-be mom. Try not to get out until you have to. I’ll be quick.”
She slammed the door on their protests. This was the Angela from the hospital, the one who couldn’t possibly have been curled into a corner the night before. She had lived two lives before the war, but now, she was free to be herself, and it gave her a subtle swagger the shadowy people recognized with longing. It was the stride of someone who wasn’t living in fear.
Both Eagles were relieved (and instantly jealous) when Seth got out and fell in on her right but wasn’t sent away.
Neil hit the button on his belt. “She never leaves our sight!”
Seth nodded at the hissed order as the doors on both sides of Angela’s Blazer opened in case Neil and Kyle needed to get out fast.
Angela stopped about twenty feet from the stairs of the first plane and didn’t stare up into what was sure to be another ugly scene.
Right behind her, Seth keyed the button on his own belt so that the other men could hear.
“Can we help you?”
The shadow flinched but didn’t respond, and Angela stayed where she was.
“We’re from Safe Haven. It’s an American refugee camp. You’ll be safe with us.”
The shadow snorted, and Angela took a few steps closer, denying Seth this time when he wanted to follow.
They were by rusting gates and an enormous field of waist-high grasses where anything might be lurking, and the black-clad cop’s tired eyes swung continuously.
“I can prove it,” Angela told the slender female, who had no skin showing beneath her dark, heavy clothing. “He did what I wanted, right? If they were bad, I’d be a slave.”
The girl shrugged. “It could be a trick. Slavers are smart.”
Her voice was nervous, hopeful, and young. Angela pushed comfort again. “Safe Haven follows the old rules. You and your new family would be well cared for there.”
Angela felt the scowl and hoped she had chosen correctly as the whine in the wind increased.