These thoughts vanished as light flooded the room. The dog licked the outstretched hand of the man entering the room. Gray eyes. John didn’t trust him already.
The man ran a hand through his greasy brown hair. It didn’t look like it had been washed in days. Poor hygiene. John really didn’t like the looks of this guy. The grease ball strolled to the desk, wrapped his forearm around the back of the chair, and slid it toward the bed. Spinning the chair to face John, the man sat down, like a parent reading a bedtime story, and wiped the sleep from his eyes.
John’s shirt pulsed with each rapid heartbeat. The man leaned back on the chair with a tyrannosaurus yawn. Digging at a stubborn sleeper in his eye, the man yawned again.
“I’m Kade,” he said, patting the dog.
The man called Kade rolled his hand over and over. What did he want from him? His name? Never.
“And you are?” Kade stared him down.
“John.”
Kade covered another yawn. “John, we’re not going to hurt you—unless you do something stupid. However, we’re all really friggin tired right now. So if you stop screaming, we’ll free you in the morning and sort this all out.”
He patted John’s leg and stood up with a stretch. “Good talk.”
The dog followed Kade to the door, where he motioned for the animal to stop. Letting out a whine, the dog took a seat.
That’s when it hit John: he was still a prisoner. Regardless of the smooth-talking cool guy with the dog, he was still a captive. He wouldn’t stand for that.
“Help!”
Kade’s head snapped toward John, his sleepy eyes suddenly menacing. John clamped his lips shut and closed his eyes. He could hear Kade’s heavy footsteps pounding against the carpet as he closed the distance to the bed. This was it. He was going to die. At least he had put up a good fight.
He heard something rubber bounce off the floor. His eyes were squeezed as tight as they could be, his lips were rolled over on themselves, but he wondered why he couldn’t close his ears in a time like this. John tried not to hear the rattle of the metal cuffs as his body shook.
“Call for help again,” Kade ordered.
John shook his head.
“Call for help again,” Kade commanded.
John had resisted once; that meant he was fighting well. Twice, though—that was a risk. Sometimes you had to ally with your enemies.
“Hel—” Something rammed into his mouth. Fuzzy and salty. He couldn’t believe he was being violated. He wanted to puke as it filled his mouth. He wasn’t crying; he was playing weak, he told himself, as tears streamed down his cheeks.
“I’ve been wearing that sock for three days,” Kade said. “Enjoy.”
John opened his eyes to see Kade leaving the room with an uneven hobble from his removed shoe. A sock? John wanted to laugh if it wouldn’t have choked him. Just a sock. They thought they could break him with just a sock? Never.
His nostrils flared. He felt like he was breathing through a straw, sucking in his first lungful of air. That’s when the smell of rotten eggs and the taste of the ocean met, churning his stomach.
He was broken.
He tried to yell that he surrendered, but all that came out was a muffled set of vowels. The dog stalked over and lay beside his bed. He never did ask what the dog’s name was. His thought was erased by the need for his next breath.
* * *
Kade made his way down the corridor, contemplating if there could be something mentally wrong with John. He pulled open the door to their sleeping room. The lids of his eyes slammed shut as he leapt into bed. A numb feeling immediately spread through his body. Finally, he could sleep.
Mick’s voice came through the walkie. “Kade, we need you again.”
Kade muffled a curse into his pillow, pushing himself back to his feet. The only light coming into the hallway was the moonlight shining through the open doors to the dorm rooms. He bounced off the walls in the corridor and slammed his shoulder into the doorframe as he fought his way to the stairs, which he stealthily crawled. The cold air smacked him in the face as he stumbled to Mick and Victoria, who were on their knees, peering out the southwest corner.
“What?”
Mick held a finger to his lips, and Kade joined them. He curled his fingers over the stone balustrade and watched the road.
He heard the rumble before he saw the box-shaped camo Humvee. The headlights were off, and someone was scanning with a spotting light through the hole in the roof. The light snapped around, focusing on a clump of trees where there was a flurry of movement.
A second person opened fire with the large machine gun, each shot sounding like rolling thunder in the night. Kade, Mick, and Victoria dropped down below the wall.
“That’s a fifty cal,” Mick said, plugging his fingers into his ears.
“Military,” Victoria said, a smile overtaking her face. Kade didn’t share her joy that these new arrivals appeared to be military. With the logical extent of a country-wide collapse, he doubted these were still upstanding American soldiers; his gut told him this was bad news. They were survivors, like his own group, but he had no way to know if they belonged to a larger group.
“If we’re lucky, they’ll just keep going,” Kade replied.
The door swung open, and Tiny and Grace emerged, dressed in coats and carrying rifles. Light poured out of the door with them.
Tiny crouched as she hurried to Kade.
“What’s going on?” she asked, flicking her safety off.
The spotlight flooded the corner of the building. Kade closed his eyes as his heart dropped. The rest of the group sat with their backs to the wall.
“What should we do?” Victoria asked.
“I don’t know,” Kade said, and then felt Tiny’s piercing, brown-eyed stare. “Yet. I don’t know yet. Let’s see what they do. Maybe they’ll keep moving.”
Mick wrung has hands as he peeked over the wall. Tiny pulled a hair tie from her wrist and gathered her hair into a ponytail. Grace held her cuffed hands out to Mick, who reluctantly released her. Victoria sat, calm as Buddha, with a smile from ear to ear.
Kade couldn’t tell what unnerved him more: the surprise visitors or Victoria’s calm. He tapped his fingers off his thumb as he sorted through different game plans based on what could happen next. He hoped that they would just keep moving.
“We know you’re there,” a megaphone blared.
Shit.
“We’re here to help. Send down someone unarmed. If you don’t, we’ll be forced to treat you as hostile,” the voice continued.
They had defenses. The first two floors were sealed off. This armed group couldn’t assault them. A Humvee like that held seven, eight guys, tops. Kade’s cohort had the high ground. They might even have the element of surprise.
But what if they were there to help? Kade had already cost Lucas his life because of a wrong choice. He could go out there unarmed. Even if it went poorly, his cohort would have time to take position and be ready to strike. He’d be the only one at risk.
“We can take them,” Tiny said.
“Just because you can’t handle whatever it is you went through with your leg, that doesn’t mean you have to get the rest of us killed,” Victoria snapped.
“Are you a shrink now?” Tiny barked back.
“Cool it. We might fight them, but not yet. Mick, you stay here on the roof. Grace, sixth floor. Tiny, fifth. Sights on that Humvee the whole time. I don’t want to start a fight, but we sure will end one. Victoria, you’ll pull the ladder up behind me,” Kade said.
Tiny gave him a reassuring smile. “Diplomacy first, war second. Not the approach I’d like, but you’re the boss. Let’s not keep our visitors waiting.”
Tiny, Victoria, Grace, and Kade made their way into the stairwell. Grace froze at the top.
“Guys, I’m not ready for this,” Grace said.
Tiny and Kade shared a look.
“Relax. Let your instincts guide you. You already saved my life once,” Tiny said, grabbing Grace by the wrist and leading her down the stairs.
“Besides, if this goes well, there won’t be a shot fired,” Kade assured her as they proceeded to the sixth floor door.
Grace nodded. “I won’t let you down.”
Kade nodded solemnly and opened the door. At the next floor, they paused again.
“Don’t go getting shot again,” Tiny said, giving him her tight-lipped smile.
He forced a smile and continued with Victoria. He hoped he wouldn’t get shot, but what did it matter if he did?
“How come you’re nice to Grace and not to me?” Victoria asked as they opened the door walked the dim corridor.
“Can we have this conversation when I get back?” Kade responded as they entered the room with the coiled escape ladder. He crouched and grabbed the chain ladder with round metal bars for grips.
“I’d rather we have it now.”
Straining, Kade lifted the coil and dropped it out the window. The links clanked against the brick wall until the coil whipped to a stop six feet from the ground. The ladder scraped against the side of the building. The spotlight lit the building where the metal dangled, reminding Kade of a jailbreak scene from an old movie.
“Later. Let’s get through this first,” he said, pulling a walkie from his belt.
“Fine.”
He flicked a switch on the walkie, keeping his receiver on, and hooked it to the back of his pants, concealing the device under his sweatshirt. “Check in.”
“Mick.”
“Tiny.”
“Grace.”
“No chatter,” Kade said as he stretched his legs out the window. Clinging to the windowsill, he lowered his body down until he was secure.
“Soon as I’m down, pull it up.”
He descended, rung by rung, watching his shadow follow every motion. As his hands gripped each metal rod, he wished he had worn a pair of gloves. He made the mistake of looking down and choked the rung, frozen between the second and third floor. He convinced himself to keep rappelling. The last thing he wanted to do was let the military know he was afraid. Reaching the bottom of the ladder, he dropped the remaining distance to the ground.
He moved into the blinding light with his hands on his head, controlling each of his steps to hide the fear in his heart. The light was so strong he had to close his eyes, but even against his lids it still felt like he was looking into the sun.
“That’s far enough,” a voice said, and the light on his eyelids disappeared. Kade blinked his eyes open, but he was night-blind. The flashing black dots made it difficult for him to find the Humvee in the dark. The red embers of a lit cigar gave him a focal point. “Identify yourself.”
“My apologies, but the last person I trusted shot me. You go first,” Kade said. He closed his eyes and listened to the turret on top of the Humvee ahead of him. A lighter case flicked open off to his right. He strained to hear more, but he knew there were at least three people.
“I am Sarge, leader of the second squad from the fifth unit of the Niagara Tribe,” the man with the cigar said.
“I was under the impression you were military.”
“We were. You survived; you saw how fast the world went to hell. When the shit hit the fan, we found a new Pledge of Allegiance. We are on long-range recon, searching for survivors and exterminating the vermin.”
“Well, you found us.”
“Take the edge off your voice. We aren’t hostile. You are formally invited to come with us and join the Tribe.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Best of luck to you. We have supplies, numbers, protection, all the comforts of home. You’d be stupid to turn down the offer.”
Kade wondered if they were good to their word, or if they even had the power to make such an offer, or if there even was a larger force. He knew he didn’t want a fight, but could he trust them with the lives of his friends? Maybe they would be better off with military protection, but all his good faith had been used. This was where Damian and Ashton knew to find him, and he couldn’t leave before he was positive neither of them would ever show up. If he could pull it off, he’d avoid giving Sarge any critical information.
“I appreciate the offer, but we’re going to take a pass. If you need any food or supplies for your return trip, I’d be happy to accommodate.”
“We have everything we need. Good luck.”
“Good luck to you as well.”
Kade turned toward Lambian Hall and fought to walk back toward the ladder. He didn’t want to give them a free shot on his back, but he didn’t want to show his fear. He could sense the Primal state of Sarge and felt that if he showed weakness, it would cause the man to pounce.
“Sarge, motion,” the man from the turret hollered.
The spotlight trained hot on Kade’s back, and he assumed it was the end. The fifty cal was going to tear him to pieces. At least he wouldn’t feel it.
Then he saw Victoria barreling toward him at a dead sprint.
“Wait! Wait!” She hollered.
“Hold fire!” Sarge commanded.
Kade snagged Victoria by the waist. Her feet dug into the earth, and she pressed against him as he held her back. She relaxed and stood straight, looking into his eyes.
“I was listening to everything they said. I’m a scientist. I examine facts. They are offering food, shelter, and safety. I get that you are here with your band of misfits, but I am not one of them.” Victoria’s eyes stayed trained on Kade’s.
“What about the talk we’re going to have?” he asked, grasping at anything that might change her mind.
“We should have had it earlier, Kade. I’ve measured the options. They’re offering a better deal. Take care of yourself, I mean it. Goodbye.”
Kade lowered his arm and stood in stunned silence. He ignored Mick’s protests coming through the walkie and the approvals of Sarge’s squad. He felt helpless as he trudged back. There was no obligation for Victoria to stay; he had no right to keep her if she wanted to go.
He felt defeated at the loss of another member of his cohort, especially since he could have prevented her departure by simpl
y being respectful.
CHAPTER X
CLEANING HOUSE
___________
Grace sat against the roof with her eyes closed. Her breathing was slow and even. Kade stood, surveying the pink hues of the morning. He didn’t want to wake her; a long day awaited her. Besides, he had enough on his mind.
Victoria had chosen to leave with strangers instead of staying with the cohort. Kade retraced everything that had happened between him and Victoria from the beginning, when Damian had first brought her to meet the family. Right from the start, Kade and Victoria had been as compatible as a rhinoceros and a redwood. It wasn’t that they didn’t get along; they just got along better when left to their own habitats. She continually looked down on him for his anger and lack of motivation, which in turn made him lash out at her vanity and dependency on others. Their relationship was a tense truce, where Damian was always asking each of them—without telling the other one—to watch what they said. That tension carried into the Primal Age, and Kade had treated Victoria like a worthless egghead when he should have been treating her like their greatest long-term asset. No one else in the group could do anything about the foamers on a medical level.
Now he was stuck hoping that Damian would ride in like a white knight and save the day. He couldn’t help but wonder, had he been willing to have her conversation, would she have stayed. He wished he knew what she wanted to tell him. Letting her go had been a mistake.
He wondered if he’d made the wrong choice by refusing to join the Tribe. They’d promised protection and food, and that was already more than he could offer. He felt arrogant for having made an executive decision, as if his opinion mattered more than anyone else’s. Tiny insisted that he was the leader, but he didn’t feel like it was his right to make that choice for all of them. Victoria had probably made the right choice. So far, he had gotten Lucas killed; lost X and Ashton; and now Victoria had deserted them. From his original group, he had three people left. Half of the people he was charged with protecting were gone.
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