EMP:The Reckoning: A Post Apocalyptic Survival Story (The Fall Book 3)

by Mathews,Mark

  She tried pushing her pain aside, thinking about all the people in her life, both past and present, who had pain to deal with. She didn’t want to be seen as weak by letting anyone know how much it hurt. Even though she knew covering up the pain was going to take everything in her, she also knew she wouldn’t have to do it for long. She would be dead in a day or two. The feeling of impending doom that pumped through her body told her that. So she just would close her eyes and pretend like she was sleeping. When you were asleep, no one ever bothered you. That would make the charade a little easier. A stab of pain shot through her, and she caught herself before she let her face wince. Yes, ignoring everything was the way to go. As long as she focused on that, there was nothing she couldn’t make the others believe.

  Kayleigh was worried. She was trying to do her best to take care of Wren, but she didn’t know what she was doing. Being a nurse took years of study that she didn’t have. She hoped the little injections she gave Wren were helping rather than hurting the woman, and kept praying that Wren wouldn’t die. Granted, she didn’t have much hope for Wren making it due to her injuries, as well as not having a doctor on hand to make sure she healed properly. What if Garrett came back and Wren was dead? He might blame Kayleigh for not looking after her well enough, and that could get her and Nat kicked out of this family. Then where would they go? What would they do? Kayleigh couldn’t take care of Nat in this new world, and she knew that. It was a shortcoming she despised in herself, and that she lived with every day. Nat was only a teenager, so he couldn’t very well take care of himself, much less anyone else. What would they do if Garrett kicked them out? Fear and doubt cycled through her thoughts on a continuous loop, and she even missed when Wren spoke for the first time since the two women had been alone.

  “Kayleigh?” Wren had to repeat the other woman’s name three or four times before she snapped out of whatever daydream in which she’d been lost. Kayleigh blushed, feeling guilty that she’d caused Wren to exert that much effort.

  “What is it, Wren? Don’t try to talk if you don’t have to, okay? Try to save your strength so you can fight your injury.”

  Kayleigh’s voice was soft and soothing, and Wren instantly recognized the other woman was trying to coddle her, trying to get her to do what she wanted. She couldn’t believe it. Even now, she was trying to be the mother. It made her wonder what she herself would have been like if she’d had a family and children.

  “Is Garrett back?”

  The words were laced with pain, and Wren closed her mouth, gritting her teeth together as a new wave of pain swept over her. That was all the conversation that she could manage. Wren was shivering, and Kayleigh tucked the blanket in tighter around her. Sadly she shook her head.

  “No, sweetie, he’s not. I’m sorry.”

  Wren nodded, closing her eyes. She squeezed them tightly closed so she could keep the tears from spilling down. What if he didn’t come back in time? What if she died before he came back to say goodbye? No. She wouldn’t let that happen. She would hang in there to see his face one last time before she went. She would do whatever it took to see him and get one last kiss goodbye.

  Back at the road, Garrett filled in Max on everything that he’d missed. Well, as far as Garrett himself knew. He stood there, silently, staring at Garrett as the news spilled from his mouth. Garrett felt like he had word vomit coming up, but he couldn’t help it. It all had been wrapped up in a painful little ball in his chest that had been eating away at him since all of this had started. He was usually pretty good at hiding his own emotions so he could help others handle theirs. This time, it all came pouring out of him, and he couldn’t say he was sorry for it. He felt much lighter after he’d told Max everything, almost like a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

  “Ben was a good man. I’m going to miss him. But on the bright side, he can be with Athena again.” Max was a lot like Garrett, and that meant that he would grieve in his own way when he was alone. No tears came to Max’s eyes, and it wasn’t because he didn’t care, it was just because he never let anyone see him at his worst.

  “Now we’re looking for Austin so we can try getting Seth back. Have you seen anyone out there on the road?” Garrett held his breath. He wasn’t sure they ever would find Austin, much less have it be so easy that Max had seen them and would know where to find them, but he hoped anyway.

  “I’m sorry, Garrett, but I didn’t. I didn’t see anyone on the route that I was on at all. Maybe they were sneaky, but you know how paranoid I am when I’m outside the wire by myself. So I don’t think there was anything I missed.” Garrett did indeed know how Max got, and he believed him when he said there was no one else on the road.

  “Maybe we should get back to the factory and regroup. It won’t do us any good to go tearing around the countryside at night, blindly looking for a needle in a haystack. We need to find another way to do it. Maybe we can come up with a plan together.”

  It was the best course of action that Garrett could think of. And maybe he wanted to get back to see Wren. In the back of his mind, all he could see was her lying there, pale and cold, completely lifeless. The thought shook him to his core. He couldn’t let that happen. He refused to let it happen. He sped back to the factory a little more than he should have, but he was focused. Nat was holding on for dear life as they bumped and thumped down the road, but didn’t say a word. He was anxious to get back to his mother, because he didn’t feel like anyone was safe if they were out of each other’s eyesight.

  “Kayleigh? Where are you?”

  Garrett’s voice rang out through the gloom of the factory. Fear gripped his heart. Every fraction of a second that she didn’t answer made thoughts of her and Wren’s demise flash across the movie screen in his head. He had to listen hard to hear her cry out because all he could hear right now was the ringing in his ears.

  “Over here!” He followed her voice until he found them. Wren looked sunken and hollow under her blanket. Max whistled low, and it caught Wren’s attention. She opened one eye and looked up at them both.

  “Okay, Wren. Here’s the deal. I got some medical training in me from the military and I’ll do what I can to get you into some better shape, but it’s going to hurt like hell. You want me to try?”

  Max’s voice barely penetrated the haze of pain that was enveloping her brain, but when it did, she gave him a bit of a nod. Garrett got down on his knees along with Max to try helping Wren. Kayleigh went over to Nat, and the two of them stood together in a little corner where they were out of the way, watching Max and Garrett do what they could for Wren. She screamed once, and it was enough to make even the hardest heart melt in sympathy, but after that, she passed out from the pain, and made no more sounds. Garrett was angry with himself because he knew he was hurting her, but he had to in order to make her better. Max was the real field medic. Garrett just did what he was told, for the most part. He didn’t know how long they worked on Wren, but he knew that it was for a while. She grew paler by the time they finished, but Max did his best to lay Garrett’s mind to rest.

  “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, and I can’t promise it’s going to get better. She’s still in pretty bad shape, but I’ll do whatever I can for her.” There was a promise in his voice, and that was the only thing that held Garrett together right now.

  “I don’t want Alice and the girls to be out much longer. Can you go and bring them back?” Garrett didn’t want to go himself, in case Wren didn’t make it. He wanted to be here with her at the end. He tasked Max to go, if he chose to accept the mission. Max nodded and turned to leave.

  “Wait! I’m going, too!”

  The words were out of Nat’s mouth before Max took the first step. Kayleigh had a hurried discussion with her son, but he firmly pushed her hands away and went with Max. He cared about Brooke, and he was going to show Alice he still could be trusted. He felt as though he had to make up for the damage he’d done. The guilt still was dragging him down, and if he
didn’t try getting rid of some of it, it would drown him in self-pity. Garrett appointed himself Wren’s nurse, and he spent hours sitting by her side, holding her hand, and just talking to her. Even though Wren was in and out of consciousness, he continued talking to her.

  “You’re going to be just fine. When you get through this, we’re going to make plans for our future together. It’s going to be you and me, okay? Just get through this for me. I can’t lose you, Wren. I need you in my life. Please get through this for me. I’m going to do whatever I can to help you get better. I swear it.”

  There were tears in his eyes, but no one saw, and they dried up on their own and went away. He now fully could appreciate how hard it had been for Wren to take care of him when he’d been hurt. He was sure she’d sat there with him, talking to him the whole time, trying to give him the courage to fight and to hold on, not knowing if he could hear her or not. Now the roles were reversed, and Garrett had a new appreciation for what she’d done for him. If he had to do it twice as often and twice as long, he still wouldn’t feel as though he had paid her back a fraction of what he owed her. He hoped she would make it through this so he could tell her exactly what she meant to him. Unbidden, his thoughts turned to Alice and the girls. He hoped that Max and Nat would find them, and that they would be alright.

  Unfortunately, right now, the truck that Alice had been driving herself and the girls in stood empty, the doors open, the key in the ignition, and the engine running. There was no one in sight. However, the lights were on, and that would start attracting too much attention. It already had attracted the attention of two men who had been hiding not too far away. They had stayed in the bushes, following the truck with their eyes until it came to a halt. They lay in wait, hoping to see who was in it, and if they were a threat. Now, they didn’t quite know if it was a trap or not, but they only had one way of finding out, and that was to approach the truck. In the dark, they crept up through the bushes until they reached the truck. One stood guard while the other searched through it for anything they could use. Both of them jumped any time a sound came from the woods at the side of the road.

  “Something’s wrong. No one would leave a perfectly good truck like this running, with the lights on. Something had to have happened to the people in it. I don’t know if we should stick around to find out exactly what it was, because it could happen to us, too.”

  The second man still was bent over the back seat of the truck, searching it. There were a few supplies in it, and he pawed through them like a grubby thief in a jewelry store. His eyes lit up almost the same, but whether it was happiness at his luck or just plain greed, no one would know.

  “You want to pass up this truck? We could use this for ourselves. If you just hurry up and get in here, we could drive away and no one would know.” They went back and forth for a few minutes, making arguments both for and against taking the truck.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Garrett had told Max that Alice and the girls had cut him off going into town, and that had been the reason he’d doubled back, and had, coincidentally, met Max. Taking the same truck that Garrett had had, Max and Nat crawled into the cab and headed to town. They were barely inside the town’s outskirts when they saw a pinprick of light ahead of them. As they got closer, Max’s hand started reaching farther and farther down his leg, toward his ankle. By the time they were close enough to the light to identify it as the truck Alice had been driving, Max had been almost doubled over the steering wheel, barely able to see over the dashboard. When he saw that the truck was empty, his hand whipped under his pant leg and he pulled out a wicked looking knife. It caught the red light from the truck’s tail lights, making it look like it already was covered in blood.

  “Get out as quietly as you can. Hide in the bushes. I’m going to hide the truck and I’ll be right back. Don’t come out until you hear my voice, okay?”

  Max was all business. Part of Nat felt good that he was being treated like an adult, but part of him also felt like he wouldn’t be able to live up to that responsibility. His mind was consumed with worry over Brooke. If something happened to her, and he lost her, he didn’t know how he would handle it. He couldn’t. That was just it. He couldn’t handle it at all. It would rip him apart. He jerked his head up and down once to acknowledge Max’s words, then turned to hide in the bushes on the side of the road. He was so focused on the truck, trying to think of what could have happened, that he didn’t hear Max call him at first. However, Max wasn’t just military-trained, he knew things almost inherently. He found Nat and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him up to his feet.

  “Sorry. I just was trying to think of places that they might have gone.” He felt sheepish, and almost like a little kid who just had been scolded for doing something he shouldn’t have. That adult feeling he’d had only moments ago was long gone.

  “It’s okay. Let’s start looking.”

  Max hoped against hope that he would find all three girls unharmed. He couldn’t stand going back to Garrett with more terrible news. His best friend was dead, his adopted son was missing, and the woman he loved was literally at death’s door. There was no way he could tell Garrett that his daughters and their mother had disappeared or that they had been hurt or killed. Pushing that thought aside, he plunged on into town, Nat by his side.

  The town was eerily quiet, and it amplified every tiny sound. If a mouse had decided to skitter its way across the pavement, Nat would have heard it and been able to pinpoint the poor little creature in the dark. A loud noise rent the air, and it made both Max and Nat jump. Max hurried Nat into the alley so they would be hidden, then they started running in the direction of the noise. Nat’s ears were ringing. That crack had scared him so badly after the utter silence, causing him to jump about a foot in the air. He was embarrassed at his own reaction, but he kept close on Max’s heels. They rounded the last corner of a building and then Max threw out his arm to halt Nat and slam him up against the building. In front of them stood a lone figure, poised as if to shoot, arms out, and a trail of smoke leaving the gun, melting lazily into the air. It was Jenny, and she looked like she meant business. Jenny was trembling all over and crying. On the ground at her feet was a man in his fifties, writhing in pain.

  A quick assessment of the wound told Max the man wasn’t going to make it. He came up to Jenny slowly, not making any sudden movements in case she felt threatened and wanted to shoot again. Nat did the same, but he stood in front of her, breaking her gaze on the man on the ground.

  “What happened, Jenny?”

  Nat’s voice was soothing and calm, and she finally dragged her eyes up to his. He was a friend, but she still didn’t want to talk about something that personal with him. He wasn’t her father. She felt embarrassed, but she knew he would find out at some point anyway, so she just closed her eyes and let it all spill out.

  “He…he tried to…to rape me.”

  She struggled to get the words out and they gave both Nat and Max a sickening feeling in the pits of their stomachs. Max took the gun from her, gently, holstering it in his belt. He put his arm around Jenny and started to steer her away from the man on the ground, who now was gasping out his last breath. Max didn’t want Jenny to see the man die, because that was something that would stay with the little girl for the rest of her life. Nat couldn’t hold his thoughts back anymore.

  “Where are Brooke and your mom?” His heart started pounding a rapid tattoo against his rib cage while he waited for Jenny to answer. To him, it felt like hours passed before she spit out the words.

  “Austin has them. I don’t know where they went, or what he wants to do with them, but I think they’re still in town.”

  Jenny still was trembling, and silent tears were running down her cheeks. Nat recognized the feeling himself. Jenny was beating herself up about not being able to protect her family. He gave her the biggest hug he could. The little girl clung to him, and he did his best to soothe her.

  “Nat, I need you to take Jenny and
get her safely back to the factory. Garrett will be waiting. I’m going to go find the other two. Use that truck we came in, and I’ll use the one Alice had.” Nat opened his mouth to protest. There was no way in hell he was leaving here without Brooke. Over his dead body.

  “I’m not leaving without Brooke. I can’t.” He was about to launch into a long explanation as to why he thought he was the only one who could find Brooke, but Max gave him a stern look that quelled any rebellion he was feeling.

  “Let’s not keep Jenny out here in the open when she’s so afraid, okay?”

  That was all it took. Nat looked down into Jenny’s pale and scared face, and he kicked himself mentally for being so selfish. Yes, he wanted to look for Brooke, but the truth was, Max was better equipped and trained to do that, and he could help Jenny right now. She needed her dad and some food, maybe a hot drink to help calm her down. He took her hand and went back to the road. Max had done a good job of hiding the truck, but even in the darkness, Nat could tell where it was. He managed to get Jenny into the passenger side of the truck, buckled her in, and then headed back to the factory. Unbeknownst to Nat, Max had followed them to the truck to make sure they had managed to get out of there alright. Satisfied that Nat could take it from there, he crept back toward the town, looking for any clues that might point him toward the missing women.

  In the car, Jenny sat silently, arms wrapped around herself, rocking back and forth gently. She was silent, and it put Nat a little on edge. The silence made it so he would think about Brooke, and he didn’t want that. He wanted to keep his mind preoccupied until he saw her safely back at the factory. Letting his mind run away with all the things that could happen to her was the worst thing for him right now, but he couldn’t seem to find the off switch for his thoughts.