Elias quickly changed the subject and reverted his attention to the radio in his hands. “Who is helping you?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Henry said.
The statement was probably true. For a lifer from Lone Oak State Prison to be traveling with the sheriff of Hope, Wisconsin was a ridiculous thought.
“I can determine that,” Elias said.
Henry shrugged. What was to be gained from cooperating with this person? Elias had already declared he would kill them. So, if he resisted, then he had longer to live. Henry felt like he would be able to take some pain. Tossing around the word torture, however, made him feel a little uneasy.
This had something to do with the soldiers in the neighborhood. That fact was enough to tell Henry this was huge. The fact that these soldiers had working tanks was disconcerting. Sure, Henry and Leland had been able to procure a working vehicle and a set of radios, but it was nothing like a whole fleet that the soldiers were using. They either kept much of their technology stored away in a place that couldn’t be affected by the power outage or they had been prepared for it.
Who was he dealing with? Surely these weren’t the people who were responsible for the power outage. Surely Sam had no idea who was behind the attack.
But now, it made sense in a way. Sam was the one who introduced Henry to the idea of an EMP. He was the one that had mentioned something about an EMP so large that it could take out the entire national power grid. Henry wasn’t sure if that had just happened, but he felt like he was dangerously close to understanding whether or not it had. Now that he sat in this chair, he would have rather been left in ignorance.
“Why don’t we just take a moment and see who answers the call?” Elias said, holding up the radio.
Henry looked up at Elias, curious if Leland would answer to someone else’s voice.
Elias walked over to Henry and held the radio in front of his face. “Whoever it is, I want you to talk to them. Ask them to come meet you.”
“I don’t know where I am,” Henry said.
“Just say the corner of Sycamore and Blithe.”
Henry sighed, then gritted his teeth. “Listen, I’m not getting anyone else involved in this. You know—”
Elias backhanded Sam across the face without even looking. The force of the blow knocked Sam’s head backward, and Henry’s hands balled into fists. Blood dripped down Sam’s nose, and Henry looked up at Elias.
“You’re a real bastard, you know that?”
“What is it going to take for you to call whoever this radio is connected to?” Elias demanded. He looked at Sam. “I can smack him around all day, and I can also bring in some help. I don’t like administering the torture, but I don’t mind seeing it.”
“You don’t have to tell him anything,” Sam said. “He’s just going to kill us anyway.”
Henry looked at Elias. “How about I tell you everything I know, and he tells you everything he knows, and you let us go?”
Elias’s answer was quick. “Sure,” he said. To Henry, it was just a lie, though he wasn’t sure what reason Elias might have to kill them. He still didn’t know how much Sam had been mixed up in all of this.
Whether Elias was lying or not, the radio was Henry’s best ally. If Leland was responsive to it and he remembered the code phrase, then they may have a chance at a rescue.
“The man’s name is Leland West,” Henry said. “You may not believe this, but he’s a cop.”
“Oh, I certainly don’t have a reason to doubt you,” Elias said. “The EMP has created a lot of strange situations. Partnering with a cop? It’s not so strange.” He set the radio in front of Henry again. “But I do want to make sure that all our tracks are covered. I still don’t know to what capacity you may be working with your brother, and this third person might be able to help me answer that. Once I determine that none of you are a threat any longer, we can be done with this.”
Henry didn’t miss the non-committal answer to how all of this would end. He suspected Elias might be the kind of person to shoot them in the head without batting an eye.
“I don’t know what you expect to get out of this,” Henry said. “But I’ll talk to him. What do you want me to say?”
“You tell him to meet you at Sycamore and Blithe,” Elias said. “Then we can all have a little chat.”
Henry nodded and took a deep breath. Elias held the radio in front of his mouth and pressed the button. Henry looked up at Elias, then at Sam with squinted eyes. He was sure Sam wondered why or how Henry had a working radio in his possession. But there were a lot of unanswered questions in all this.
“Leland? Leland are you there? I need your help.”
It took a few moments of waiting before Leland answered. “What’s going on?”
“Did you find anything?” Henry wanted to keep the conversation inconspicuous enough to keep Elias from understanding what they were doing, especially if Leland had found his daughter.
“Everything is in good shape on my end,” Leland said. “How about you?”
Henry felt a surge of surprise. Had he found his daughter? If that was the case, he would likely be motivated to get back to Hope and leave Henry behind. Henry swallowed. “Well, my left elbow hurts pretty bad, but I’m doing okay,” he said.
“Where are you?” Leland asked. The question came so quick, Henry wondered if Leland had missed the code phrase.
Henry looked up at Elias, who nodded. “I’m at Sycamore and Blithe. Can you meet me here?” The words felt like a betrayal because it would lead the sheriff right to a trap. And if both he and his daughter were caught, Henry wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.
“It’s going to take me a little bit, but I can get there,” he said. “We’re going to have to figure out transportation.”
“Yeah, I know,” Henry said.
“I’ll see you in a few minutes,” Leland said.
The radio was silent. Elias appeared satisfied with the conversation and didn’t seem to suspect the code phrase—the words that would have told Leland he was in trouble and to proceed with caution.
Henry tried to think of what he would do if the situation were reversed. If he had his brother with him, would he go back and try to rescue Leland? He would like to think he would, but the odds were against him in a situation like that.
“I’m going to leave the two of you to catch up for a bit,” Elias said. “I will let you know when your friend arrives.”
With that, Elias left the room and shut the grating metal door behind him.
“They’re probably recording us,” Sam said.
“What exactly are we doing in here?” Henry asked. “Who are they?”
“You know what we’ve talked about, right? In the prison? About something like we’re facing?”
“With the EMP?” Henry asked.
Sam nodded slowly.
“Yeah, I remember. I’ve thought about it a lot the past couple of days.”
“Well,” Sam said, “it’s bigger than that. It’s bigger than I ever thought possible.”
An EMP detonating over the United States, throwing the entire country into darkness? What could have been bigger?
“How big?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Sam said. “The people behind it. I knew they would be powerful…I just haven’t had the chance to dig deep. But they have my computer. They have everything.”
“And they’re going to kill you over it?”
“Us,” Sam said. “They are going to kill us. How did you get out?”
“You want to know what’s funny?” Henry said. “I escaped the prison hours before the EMP. Then there was a massive prison break where everyone either died or got out.”
Sam’s eyes went wide. “Are you kidding me?”
“It was incredible. Ironic, you know?”
“Then you came after me?” Sam asked.
“That’s right,” Henry said. “I knew this place would be a mess.”
Sam shook his he
ad, his eyes staring off into the distance as though he had given up hope. “You’re always getting into trouble trying to protect me. If it wasn’t enough to go to prison for the rest of your life, now you are just about to get yourself killed.”
Henry looked toward the door where Elias had left with the radio. He hadn’t known Leland for long, but he didn’t think the man would just abandon him when Henry was in trouble.
“Hopefully not,” Henry said.
Chapter Forty-Two
Gwen had never felt so alone. The darkness of the prison covered her like a thick blanket. She dared not look down when her foot hit a clump on the ground for fear of it being a body. But the smell gave it away every time.
Alex’s dead weight was almost too much for her and Bryson to carry. Bryson was slowly getting some of his hearing back, but he complained of a loud ringing in his ears that wouldn’t go away.
They stopped twice to catch their breaths and rest their aching limbs. They sat in the darkness together, the stench of death so potent they had to be sitting next to a couple of bodies.
“Do you know where we are?” Gwen asked.
She had to repeat the question three times for Bryson to hear her, and she felt uncomfortable being so loud. She was disappointed when she realized Bryson was as lost as she was.
They found themselves wandering in places where they longed for the light. Some corridors were windowless with only the hint of light in the distance from some unknown origin. Retracing their steps the way Alex had led them was impossible. The place was a maze to them, especially without the ability to read signs or reference parts of the building.
They tried to rouse Alex out of his unconsciousness but failed each time. All they needed was for him to look up and tell them they were going in the right direction, but he never did.
Finally, they stopped again and Gwen collapsed to her knees. She couldn’t see anything in front of her, and her heart pounded in her ears. She was lost, and she couldn’t find her way out.
We’re dead. We’re never going to get out of this place.
She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. She couldn’t imagine it was real, the gore and horror that had taken place in front of her—the fact that she had just shot a man to death in the middle of the prison.
She wondered what Bryson was feeling, but she dared not ask him. Any conversation with him flirted with yelling.
Her lungs burned from trudging through the dark halls. She knew that night was almost here, and she didn’t want to be in the prison when the sun finally fell from the sky. They had to find their way out, even if someone else had hot-wired the truck and taken it.
She closed her eyes and slowed her breath. This wasn’t the first bloody mess she had seen since the power outage, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. This wasn’t something that was going away anytime soon. That this prison was still abandoned two days after the event and there had been no emergency response in sight told her all she needed to know: this was going to be a long haul, if not forever—the new normal.
Gwen’s breath stopped when she heard something in the distance. Echoes. Voices. They weren’t close enough for her to tell what they were saying, but there were at least two people. Maybe three.
It would be stupid to call out to them for help. More than likely they were surviving prisoners who hadn’t chased after them. That didn’t mean they were murderers or that they would try to do anything to Gwen, but she had to be cautious all the same. What it did mean, however, was that she could follow the voices and potentially find her way out of this place.
Gwen pulled herself to her feet, her knees burning as she moved. She pulled one of the pistols from her pants and held it in her hand. It was cocked and ready to fire at anything that moved. Her dad had taught her plenty about guns and shooting. She wasn’t the best shot, but she could take care of herself if she needed to.
Bryson looked up at her in surprise. He hadn’t heard the voices. Gwen held up a hand in front of her and mouthed, “Wait here.”
Bryson furrowed his eyebrows, but he didn’t argue with her. He was as tired as she was and probably welcomed the long rest.
As she moved closer to the echoes, she started to feel a thrill inside of her rather than fear. She felt disgusted by what she had just gone through, but it gave fuel to the fire igniting inside of her. She was desperate to get out of this prison, and she wasn’t going to let anyone stop her. She might end up as one of the corpses on the ground, but she was not going to give up and wallow in self-pity. She gripped the gun and set her jaw.
When she reached the door, she opened it and she saw a brief glimpse of evening light in the distance. That was all she needed. Her pace quickened and she kept her focus on that light. It got bigger and bigger as she moved. Her surroundings became visible—the colorless walls were blank, the floors dirty and sometimes bloody. When she would stop, she could hear the echoes more clearly. She still couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she realized that only two people were talking. She could take on two people. Even if they were armed. Part of her wished Alex hadn’t locked her up in the safe room as bait. She was confident with a gun and could’ve made a difference in that fight. But he hadn’t told her his plan before he closed the door. At the time, she had thought they were all going into the room with her. It was a terrible mistake, but it had probably saved her life.
She saw the two prisoners at the end of the hallway. They disappeared beyond the doorway but continued talking. Now she could hear them saying things like how hungry they were and that they couldn’t believe they had gotten out.
With her new surge of confidence, Gwen moved forward and quickened her pace to catch up with them. She watched them as they went to a different hallway and through a couple more doors, remaining close behind them. She soon found herself in the cafeteria where all this started. The two prisoners were headed for food. When they got to the kitchen where Gwen and the others had met Julie and her crew, she knew the two prisoners would stop there and she would be able to surprise them.
But she wasn’t sure she wanted to surprise them. From this vantage point, she could see their backs were to her as they dug into the food and tore into the packages. The gun was already cocked. All she had to do was lift it and pull the trigger to send two slugs through the backs of their heads. Then her problems would be over. She would have nothing to fear here.
She raised the gun in the air and pointed it at the first prisoner to her left. She almost squeezed the trigger. She almost sent another soul to hell.
She couldn’t do it. She didn’t know these men. They were troubled enough to have been here for some reason or another, but she was not their executioner.
From what she could tell, they didn’t have weapons with them. Perhaps the prisoners that chased her had taken all the weapons.
No. Self-defense was one thing. This would be murder. Before she could rest her gun at her side, the prisoner on the right noticed her and let out a yelp.
Immediately both prisoners turned around and held their hands in the air.
“We didn’t do anything! We didn’t do anything!” the prisoner on the right said.
“I swear, we don’t want to hurt you,” the other prisoner said.
Gwen held the gun firm in her hands. Either one of them could lash out at her, and she could be caught off guard.
“I need that food,” Gwen said.
“You’re the one who killed all those people?” the man on the right said.
Gwen was surprised by the question. “What? No!”
“You weren’t the one executing everybody?”
“No,” she said again. “I was captured by those people. They had us tied up, but we got away.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
Gwen nodded at the spot behind the two men. “I’m here to get that food for my town.”
The two prisoners looked behind them then back at Gwen. “By yourself?” the one on the left asked.
�
��No,” she said. “I’ve got backup.” A dying, unconscious Alex and an almost deaf Bryson was hardly backup, but it wasn’t a total bluff.
“Do you mind not pointing that at me?” the one on the left asked.
Gwen hesitated but then lowered the gun to her side. She wasn’t sure she had a fight left in her. She wasn’t going to kill either of these men in cold blood, but she no longer had the strength to suspect their desires either.
“You two can take what you want, but would you mind helping me load up the truck with food?” she asked. “I need to get to the infirmary, too.”
“You’ve got a truck?”
Gwen nodded, and the two prisoners looked at each other again. The thought of escaping this place was just too much for them.
They need the truck as much as I do, she thought.
“How about we make a deal,” Gwen said. “The two of you help me load up the truck with food and then unload it in Hope? Then, we can give you supplies and you can be on your way to wherever you need to go? You can even have the truck.”
It was a long shot that these two prisoners would go for it. If not for the fact that Gwen had a gun and they didn’t, they might have forced her to give up the truck and she would be the one left stranded at the prison. Hope wasn’t that far away. As long as they let her live or didn’t try to hurt her, she would be fine even in the dark of night.
“How do we know you won’t turn us in?” the one on the left asked.
Gwen stared at the floor for just a moment. Even her dad, the only law enforcement in town, wasn’t there.
“There isn’t anyone to turn you in to,” Gwen finally said. “I know you guys have been stuck in your cells for a couple of days, but you’re about to meet a world that’s in darkness.”
They looked at each other.
“There’s no power, no vehicles, no long-distance communication, nothing,” she continued. “You’re as free as you’ve ever been and probably ever will be again.”
There was a long silence among them. Then the prisoner on the right sighed. “Well,” he said, “I guess we better get started.”
Fallen Earth | Book 2 | Aftermath Page 21