by Angela White
“I also atone, as does Adrian.”
Angela peered out the window and had to steel herself against the small skeletons still lying on the playground they were rolling by. The number of kids lost in the war was worse than the adults in every place that she’d been. Abandoned, left to fend for themselves, lost, taken. It was beyond awful. It was haunting.
“Some sins cannot be forgiven,” Angela stated sadly. “But I’ll spend my life trying anyway.”
There was another uneasy silence and she blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know what you expect, but if it’s a confession or oath of loyalty, I won’t give it. Neither of you guys are Adrian, either!”
Purposely blocking their thoughts, Angela didn’t say another word, even when they pulled into the new parking area. They were right to question those who joined Safe Haven’s leadership, but she had no answers for them. That was Adrian’s strength.
2
Hours after a fast meal in the crowded mess, Angela left the training area with an angry pace. Everyone below a Level Four had been told to leave and she was on a slow burn.
Restless and not certain she had the patience to pretend for a crowd, she left the noise, stepping over part of a rotting Christmas tree still wrapped in shredded red garland. The Eagles were gearing up for a mission and she was missing it. She hadn’t expected to like the danger, only the safety and confidence that came with it, but the feeling of being left out was undeniable. I want to go!
“You can.”
Angela fumbled briefly and then her weapon was in her hand and she was spinning to face the threat.
Adrian stayed still, waiting for her to adjust.
“Testing me without a vest?” she picked out. “Not wise.”
“It’s the way things are done now, how trust is built.”
Angela put her gun away, not taking her eyes from his. He needed something from her.
“Why do you want to go so much?”
She concentrated, determined to give the right answers. “I feel…abandoned, like everyone being invited to a party, but me.”
She held up a hand to stop his harsh words. “I know it’s not and I know I’m not good enough yet. It doesn’t stop me from wanting it now.”
Adrian gestured toward where his men were preparing their transportation and trying not to be caught eavesdropping. “I’ll take you along tonight. If you still give me the same answer come dawn, then I have a place for you.”
She pushed away the nagging voice that was saying neither of her men would like this. “I’ll be ready when you are.”
“Ten minutes, cover your exit. I’ll be driving the black truck.”
Angela’s heart eased and Adrian felt some of his tension fade. The slavers were a hundred miles away now, maybe even more. She would be as safe as any of his people ever were in this new world.
“Thank you.”
Adrian blinked away the urge to respond openly. That grateful tone had sent a flash of need deep into his gut. “Don’t forget your vest.”
Angela hurried. The clothes and gear from her days in the quarantine zone were easy to put on under her doctor’s coat and she felt pride at the surprise on Adrian’s countenance when he opened the driver door to find her laying down to stay below the windows. She’d beaten him.
Adrian recovered quickly and climbed in with a smile that had her staring. His happiness was stunning. Neither of them spoke as he got set and the sound of engines came to her. The Eagles were leaving.
Adrian shifted into drive and rolled along behind the two full teams. He fell back slowly, until there were only the two protective jeeps in sight.
“You can sit up now.”
Angela stretched with a soft yawn, the comforting motion of the ride sending her thoughts to the last weeks with Brady, where they’d been alternating driving to save gas. For a moment, Angela felt naked without his protection. Every rotation of the tires took her further away from him and she shifted towards the dangerous darkness they were rolling through, not wanting Adrian to notice her unease.
“I can take you back.”
His tone said he understood, but she shook her head, reddening. “Please don’t. I need this as much as you.”
“Tell me when it’s too much and we’ll go home. My word.”
“I will.” He was warning her it would get ugly.
“Liar,” Adrian snorted.
She smiled a bit. “Maybe.”
Angela didn’t ask where they were going or what was happening, content to experience it at all. She was also aware that his offer had calmed her down. Adrian was a comfort to a woman, and against her will, Angela began to accept that Marc wasn’t the only man who could make her feel safe. Safe Haven’s sharp leader also had that magic power and it was a bit disconcerting to discover after believing for so long that Brady was the only man she would ever trust.
3
“We had no choice.”
Adrian was miserable, full of a self-loathing that had Angela’s compassion warring with her outrage as they observed the assault. It was a side of him she was positive the camp and his Eagles never saw.
The gang didn’t stand a chance. The two teams of Eagles rushed in from all sides, opening fire on both armed and unarmed alike. Awake, asleep, fleeing, none of the gang was spared.
The gunfire echoed heavily at first, then died down to sporadic shots as the Eagles picked off those faking death or hiding.
“They were gearing up to attack a group of refugees near here. We’ve been keeping tabs on them.”
Angela said nothing as she observed through his binoculars, the entire show lit by the gang’s bonfire. Bodies were everywhere, the flames flickering with armed shadows and in the middle of it all, Kyle. Leading and directing, he was also checking that the dead were indeed gone…by putting a bullet in the brain of every corpse with his Glock.
It was gruesome and Adrian resisted the urge to censor it. This part of being an Eagle was uglier than most women would be able to accept.
Angela reluctantly absorbed the lesson.
When the bodies were thrown on the fire, her expression didn’t change, but Adrian could feel her mental battle to understand why he had ordered this.
Minutes later, all that remained of the gang was the fire. Angela jumped as the radio crackled.
“5-by. Movin’ on,” Kyle called.
Adrian clicked his button in response and when he shifted into drive, she assumed they were going to camp. Instead, he steered them toward the glowing brightness that the Eagles were now leaving, and Angela realized the mission (lesson) wasn’t over.
The closer they got to the fire, the harder her stomach twisted. The bodies were charring, stinking despite the windows being up, and she clamped down on her guts, as well as her heart, as he drove slowly by. This is war, right?
Adrian rolled them into the cool darkness, sensitive to her tension. He had to let her deal with it like one of the men, but the urge to comfort her was hard to fight as the Eagles came into sight and she stiffened, expecting more of the same.
“We’ll observe for a minute,” Adrian stated.
The exact words that had begun the gang’s demise made her heart thump and she forced herself to focus as his top two teams once again rushed from their vehicles.
This time though, Kyle’s men carried boxes, and their guns were holstered as they approached the moldy shed. Neil’s team providing a careful guard, after setting the items near the crooked door, the entire patrol then pulled back.
Confused, Angela waited quietly, glad there hadn’t been any more deaths yet and hoping Adrian could justify his actions. If not, this was the end of the path for his plans. She felt the wrongness of the gang, but had only his word about their intended crimes. For someone so against killing, he was very fast to be the cause of it, and she had to know why he’d decided those men should be handled that way before she agreed to be his warrior by day and his sorceress by night.
The shed was big, faded and slightly decrepit, w
ith a wide crack near the bottom of the doors that revealed only darkness, but clearly, there were people inside. The refugees Adrian said the gang had been about to attack?
One of those doors slowly opened to show them the black and white clothes of old-world religion.
Three nuns emerged and quickly carried the supplies inside, each of them doing panicked scans of the darkness around them.
“All women. Some are Black, Mexican, Indian. They tried to stay low, but the gang saw them and followed.”
Angela pulled the rest of it on her own. The women’s thoughts were full of the gang who’d been stalking them, hurting them. They weren’t sure if the boxes might be a trap by those men.
“We saw them do a dry run last night. They were neat, smooth. It wasn’t their first assault.”
“And you couldn’t let them do it even one more time.”
Adrian lit a cigarette. No, I couldn’t.
The Eagles were good enough. They’d begun to rescue and dole out justice not that long ago, but each man in his army was already lethal.
“When will you invite them to join Safe Haven?”
“Just did. Waiting for an answer.”
“Notes with the supplies?”
“Yes, but they’ve been hiding so long that it’s begun to feel normal.”
Angela heard his need and rose to it without hesitation. “I might be able to tell you what’s going on in there.”
Adrian saw the mission Eagles fall in behind the two jeeps that were providing his guard. “Can I help?”
She hesitated. “I haven’t…slept well. If I get tired, I may need energy.”
Adrian laid his big hand on the seat between them and his tone dropped to that intimate draw he sometimes used on the camp’s women when the loneliness became too much. “Whatever you need, Angie.”
He hadn’t planned to encourage anything, but her smell! Inside the closed-up cabin, the scent was winding through him like flames.
Angela flushed, slamming her lids shut, and for a minute there was only the sound of their breathing and the stillness of the night around the truck. Concentrating, she narrowed in on the shed.
Adrian made a motion to Kyle, who had pulled into the bodyguard’s place, and the mobster relayed the message. Radio silence.
Angela frowned, struggling. The minds of the truly religious were foreign, hard to read, and she slid her hand onto the wrist still waiting on the seat.
Adrian’s quick intake of air echoed in the silence, and then she was in their thoughts and talking to him with that voice of the dead that his men hadn’t quite been able to describe.
“They don’t want to, but one of them is sick…” Understanding fell into her tone, along with anger. “Their leader. Your note mentioned a doctor.”
“Can you get them–?”
“Already too late,” she interrupted, letting go of his hot skin. “They see only men.”
Adrian considered. Would he be doing what he would kill one of his men for? It didn’t matter until she grew the courage to ask aloud, but he didn’t doubt that she would.
“Here they come. The answer is no,” Angela informed him, trying to be patient while he mulled her unspoken suggestion.
The doors opened, revealing the same three women who had carried the boxes inside. Their nervous attitudes and shaky behavior sent Angela to her times of abuse. These women had been hurt by men.
The insight had her searching deeper, determined to find a way to get them to join the flock.
Adrian waited patiently. Like Mitch, he could also feel when something was coming.
“Raped, not sick.” Her voice was cold. “By some of the gang your Eagles eliminated. They left her for dead.”
She regarded Adrian angrily. “I’ll go bring them in.”
Adrian was always amazed at how these plans fell into place with only the barest of setup on his part and she took his silence for hesitation.
“I could just be one of the doctors for this run. You’re The Man.”
He motioned to the jeeps, pleased at how natural those two words sounded coming from a female soldier. “If you need anything, Kyle is your right hand.”
“Should I put on my white coat to give that old feeling of comfort?” she asked, wondering if Kyle would like that order.
Adrian stared, almost speechless this time. Now he comprehended what Kyle had tried so hard to make clear in his report.
“Wear it.”
Angela heard the admiration, but stored it for later as she got ready. The airfield had been a spur of the moment thing. This time, as far as she was concerned, she was going in as an official member of Adrian’s rescue team and it was a moment she knew she would remember forever.
There were a dozen things Adrian wanted to tell her, to warn her about, but he didn’t, needing to witness for himself how she handled tense situations. Did she know to ask questions? His men hadn’t when they’d first come to him. For her, there was only one that mattered anyway.
They emerged into the chilly night, flanked by Kyle and his team, and Angela asked, “On my own?”
He swept the area again, not distracting her with his approval. “Yes. Unless she’s needed, the witch should stay hidden. The rest of us are at your disposal.”
A bit nervous, Angela dropped behind him and the group of eleven slowly approached the shed.
Those inside were now casting furious shadows and Angela felt their tension as Adrian held up a finger, signaling the Eagles to stay where they were. Unlike during the tank attack, he wanted her in on this one, needed it.
Within a hundred yards of the door, he slowed down to let her fill the place on his right. “Anything jump out at you?”
Angela stepped carefully over a large piece of rusted fence buried in the ground. “Graves to the right, oil drums to the left, leaking what might be water. Lined garbage cans…” She paused. “A lot of scat. Too much, and it’s recent.”
“Sometimes you need what the people tell you, but always gather your own report as you go, from what’s not said.”
With Adrian’s gaze to lead her around the area, it was easy to detect what he did. The roof was covered in droppings and there was wire over the single front window. There was also a truck up against a side door and a stack of rocks blocking what was probably a cellar door.
“They barricaded themselves in. They were under attack.”
“Yes, but by?”
Angela struggled to identify all the prints and scratch marks on the debris. “Dogs, raccoons, wolves, bear.”
“Also gator.” He motioned to a wide drag mark.
“They don’t come this far north.”
“They do now. And they have the exact opposite goal as us. If we leave these people…”
“They won’t survive.”
Adrian’s voice was haunted. “I’d not leave them to this fate!”
Angela snapped her lids shut at the plea, unable to stand his pain and she listened to the witch whisper.
Only one of their own might succeed here.
She drew in a breath, suddenly sure that she could do this. “You’ll have to surrender control of the mission.”
Adrian pushed the button on the mike, not giving away his sudden flood of triumph. “We are Code Raven.”
“Copy that, Boss.”
There was no worry in that answering tone. Adrian was by her side.
Angela drew in a steadying breath. “Stay here.”
It was odd to be telling him what to do, but she didn’t let that distract her as she rotated to the nervous women.
“Hi! I’m Angie. I’m a doctor from Safe Haven refugee camp. We’ve come to find out if we can help.”
Adrian casually got closer to her as she got further away from the men. He swept the shed and the shadows around it, and listened to her tell the three nuns exactly what they needed to hear.
“I’d be happy to treat your injured people while we talk.”
“How much?”
“For
free.”
“Nothin’s free in After World.”
Angela raised a brow at the mutter from the eldest appearing of the trio. “Is that where we are?”
The nun’s gray head flopped furiously in the cool wind. “The unworthy have been cast into the Lake of Fire. We’re all burnin’ now.”
The other two women rolled their eyes, telling Angela the older woman had suffered too much.
“Don’t mind Harriet. The Last Days have been hard on her.”
Angela let out a sigh laced with tight pain. “On all of us sinners.”
Three faces cracked with the tiniest glimpse of hope.
“You’re Believers?”
Angela shrugged. “Of many things. Those who don’t, will not cast stones. Not after all that’s happened.”
The youngest of the trio had stayed partially behind the doors and she came forward now. “And yet, the Devil lurks everywhere. How can we be sure you mean no harm?”
Angela swallowed her nerves and motioned two of the nearest Eagles forward with a quick gesture she hoped was right. “In this new world, in our world, women command as much respect as the men. They do what I tell them and that should be proof enough.”
The two younger women were reluctant, but the older nun appeared shocked by the immediate presence of the two darkly dressed men Angela had called forward to flank her.
“Making him come over to you is hardly proof they follow your lead,” a fourth voice called.
This female was so young that Angela winced, but she was able to respond, “And if I ordered them to storm this shed and drag you all to my camp, would that be proof that they do what I say?”
The three women recoiled in fear, pushing to get inside the door, but that fourth voice cracked out like a whip.
“Still yourselves, Sisters!”
The door swung open slowly to reveal a heavily pregnant teenager in all black, pointing a shotgun. “State your business!”
“I already have,” Angela stated, waving the advancing Eagles back. None of them liked a weapon being pointed at her, even Neil.
“Get lost! We don’t need you.” Clearly in charge, the others slid behind the pregnant girl.
A very fast evaluation revealed Angela’s next course of action. Blunt-force honesty.