by Angela White
Tonya kept walking until the cabin was out of sight, and then checked her map. When she was secure in her exact location, she detoured to a nearby grove of trees. It was marked, but only in a way that her team would notice. Men never paid attention to shit like stomped on flowers that had been placed, instead of displaced.
She’d been trained to get up high for a clear view and Tonya snickered softly to herself as she tried to climb her first tree in delicate boots. Angela hadn’t wanted her to wear them at all, but Tonya had given up her fancy clothes and any excuse to wear them now was one she always took.
“You here yet?” Tonya called as she reached the fork in the tree and stopped to rest.
“On your right.”
Tonya didn’t look at her partner in crime. She recognized the voice. “Oh, great. It keeps getting better!”
Tonya honestly meant that and Kendle knew it from the tone. She stared in confusion. “You’re weird. You know it?”
“Sure.” Tonya pulled her kit off to rummage through for a snack. “Who else could love Kenny?”
Kendle shrugged. She didn’t know Kenn very well yet, except by the stories and his short fuse when he refused Angela’s orders. None of them were good.
“You all clear on what we’re doing here?”
Kendle grunted. “Spilling blood.”
Tonya frowned a bit. “If we have to. They might be taken without that.”
Kendle shut her eyes and let her head fall against the tree. “God, I hope not.”
Tonya was frowning thickly now. “Yeah, and I’m the weird one.”
“Says the chick dressed like she’s gonna suck the enemy to death.”
“It’s my role.” Tonya had flushed. “And you’re mean. Shut up.”
Kendle thought about ripping the woman’s red hair out strand by strand and sighed heavily. Too much noise. Kenn was sure to come running and Kendle didn’t think killing him would win her any friends, despite him being so disliked by most of the Eagles. Kenn might be scum, but he was important scum, was how she read it. If that was the case, killing him and his whore probably wasn’t the best idea.
Tonya could feel the waves of menace, but it didn’t frighten her. She didn’t care that Kendle was like Angela and the others, or that she had Marc’s protection. Tonya was well armed and she knew how to use those weapons. She also excelled at their Kai fighting, thanks to Kenn and Seth, and if the new woman wanted to scrap, Tonya had until dawn before her role officially began anyway.
Kendle chuckled as she picked up the thoughts. “Peppy, aren’t ya?”
Tonya rolled her eyes. “Sleep or something, will you? I don’t need a friend either.”
That caught Kendle by surprise. “What’s wrong with being my friend? I’m good people.”
“If you were good people, you wouldn’t have been sent out here with me,” Tonya snorted lowly.
Kendle couldn’t argue that and didn’t try. She’d never felt less good in her life and she only expected more of the same. Hope was for people who hadn’t lived in the darkness. Once you spent time there, going back was impossible.
9
“Stop number four.”
Kyle said it tiredly, already exhausted from these emotional battles each time he let a female out into danger. It wasn’t what he’d been training for.
“That’s me.”
Kyle groaned silently as Cynthia moved up the drafty isle. Kevin would shit when he found out how far away from camp Cynthia was. Adrian might too.
Cynthia hesitated at the door. She had spent a lot of the ride deliberating this moment.
Kyle waited for her to speak; sure he wouldn’t like what she had to say.
“Tell them both the same thing.”
Kyle braced as the perfume-less van of females went silent.
“I don’t love either of them, and this is what I wanted. I chose this part in her plan.” She regarded the remaining women with tenderness. “My sisters.”
“My sister,” they echoed sadly.
The feeling that they knew something about her role that he didn’t hit Kyle with enough force to make his stomach twist.
Kyle grabbed her hand, tugged her into his embrace for a quick hug that surprised all of them. “Try to come back!” he whispered violently. “They do need you!”
Cynthia returned the hug. “Remember me. I mattered.”
She climbed from the van, ignoring the cries and protests. They knew what choice she’d made.
As the van slowly left her in darkness, Cynthia disappeared into the brush with her kit over one shoulder and a recent meeting on her mind.
“If you were team leader, who would you give this duty to?”
None of the women in the tent answered and Angela insisted, “We’re not done here until we have that chore assigned.”
“You pick it,” Samantha said quietly. “We know it won’t be easy.”
Angela grimaced. “I can’t. I’ve tried. When I look, there’s only darkness.”
“Because I’m supposed to do it.”
Cynthia’s words drew gasps and denials from everyone except Angela. She stared at the reporter with sadness and resignation.
“It just cleared. You know what it means?”
Cynthia snorted. “You’ve gone over it enough. I’d better know.”
Her quip drew no smiles. Everyone in the tent knew that duty was a suicide run.
Cynthia hitched the kit further onto her shoulder and took a minute to reexamine her map. The small, reflective sticker glowing on it was just enough to read by and then she put it away. Moving through the darkness was something Angela had been drilling them on, but Cynthia still loathed it. Right now, however, she was too sad to be scared. She finally had her dreams. She was accepted by a great group of people who cared about right and wrong. She had the love of an Eagle, even if he didn’t want to admit it, and she had a child on the way, something else she’d never thought to have. And here she was, about to get herself killed.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she swore furiously. “It’s worth all our lives to accomplish this.”
10
When Troy came to, he was bound, with a gag in his mouth.
The three shadows had snuck up on Troy quickly, ruthlessly. They had hit him with a dart and tied him up. Two minutes after the assault, he had been in the rear of a truck and rolling through the darkness.
Peggy looked down at him with a scolding frown. “Why did you break the boss’s rules?”
Troy saw two Eagles on the other side of the room. He appeared to be in a small shed, but it was hard to tell.
“I’m gonna take that gag out if you promise to be quiet.”
Troy huffed against the cloth. He wasn’t agreeing to anything.
Peggy shrugged. “Then we’ll leave it in and you don’t need to eat or drink or talk.”
Peggy blew out the candle and slipped under the carpet cover that was hiding the area.
The two Eagles stayed where they were, watching Troy and a few other bound shadows. He wasn’t the only one who’d broken the rules.
Peggy took a minute to smooth her hair down and calm herself. She had friends tied up behind the curtain, explosives under foot, and a big, angry bear of a man bellowing the embarrassment of his assignment to anyone who would listen. Calling it stress was like some horrible joke.
Angela had chosen the tourist-like caves that ran along and down into the rear of Mt. Lookout. The camp was in the topmost set of caves, but Peggy knew there was miles more below them and she advanced into the first area, pleased to discover her list had been completed. As she examined through each stone room, she found the same, along with other important improvements that she hadn’t ordered. She knew Doug hadn’t done them. He was still too mad, and she swept the tunnels and small caves for the workers responsible.
She spotted three men doing things she hadn’t asked for, part of Marc’s shadow warriors, and understood she didn’t know each part of the plan for this locat
ion. Angela had people in here with her.
Peggy stared hard, and got the attention of the one closest to her. The Indian gave her a respectful, knowing nod and continued his work. Not being alone in her terrible knowledge was a relief to Peggy. She didn’t like what she had to do, but it wouldn’t stop her, and she deliberately ignored the padding workers were placing to protect the currently eating people from the explosion.
She and Hilda had helped to plant this awful idea in Angela’s dangerous mind and it was too late for guilt now.
11
Kyle opened the van door and stepped from the seat with a series of grunts, groans, and pops. All he’d done was drive and supervise, but he felt like he had been hit by Marc a few times in the cage. And then run over.
“How’d it go?”
Kyle jumped. “Damn it!”
Angela didn’t smile. She’d been waiting on his return, with only Brady’s anger to comfort her. She scanned their surroundings while she waited for him to regain his composure.
Angela’s den had been shrunk to a quarter mile and placed along the cliff line so that their backs were protected. To the north was open air. Anyone who wanted to come up that way had better be a determined climber. The rest of the space was filled with a command tent and other similar structures to protect the fighters here from the rain and sleet that was falling.
“It went fine,” Kyle finally answered, handing her a small stack of papers and envelopes. “All drops were made on schedule and Heather is with the roaming group. She’ll eventually be with our other pows until you’re ready for her.”
Angela wrote down the time and the information she’d been given, and Kyle frowned. “When did you sleep last?”
Angela put her notebook away and lied, “Going there now.”
“Needed my update first?” Kyle guessed. “I’m opening my next envelope as soon as I grab a cup of coffee.”
Angela sighed. “Open it first. And I’m sorry.”
She moved away while he did as instructed.
Thud!
Kyle punching the van was followed by the sound of the door opening and the engine starting. A few seconds later, new boots began to file into the vehicle and Angela continued on her rounds. Guilt had given her a fresh wind.
Angela checked her watch and headed for the open area to the north of their camp. Their next group should be about to leave. Now that the camp members were gone, Safe Haven’s security cameras had come down and men relieved of their odious duty of spying on each other. Ray and Dale had hated it, but there had been little else to do for a few days and after the wounds Ray had suffered from Little Rock, Angela had wanted him to have a break. She’d gotten far enough ahead of her plan that she was content she could at least start this war even off the line and not have to play catchup. It also allowed the camp a break, though Angela hadn’t bothered with a Labor Day celebration. She had known they weren’t going to get to enjoy it and she’d needed the manual labor used in other areas. Decorations and a feast meant nothing if they were a day late with her plan, except that it would be their last party. She had given most of the camp time off beforehand, telling them they needed to spend their last days doing what they wanted to. It hadn’t been encouraging to hear that, but they had enjoyed themselves at the shooting contest, where Shawn had claimed the title.
They passed the evening with food and stories around the fires, and even the wounded had attended. Many of those were heroes in these tales and they weren’t about to miss the praise. Only a few people stayed to themselves during the festivities, mostly the Indians, who were now freely roaming in and out of their gates. Brady lived here and his shadow warriors weren’t going to be parted from him yet. She’d known that when she chose his roles in her plan and adjusted accordingly. She had no problem with such devoted men surrounding Marc at all times.
The Mexicans were fewer in number around Angela’s camp. Marc didn’t trust them after all the evil Caesar had caused, but they were still in the gates more than Angela’s personal guard liked. Marc wasn’t worried about having a problem in that area until Sebastian met Angela face to face. If he showed the tiniest sign of having the same issue his brother did, Marc planned to put a bullet in his brain. He’d do that sooner if it was needed, and then tell the Mexican camps they could still stay and fight or even merge if they didn’t want to go south. Sebastian and Angela didn’t need to meet. It would only cause trouble.
As far as their spies at the base had noted, the soldiers were grouped in a disorganized cluster along the remaining walls and hills. They’d erected a sea of tents and fold out shelters, and stayed there without contacting Safe Haven. They had been waiting for a leader.
Angela shivered at a gust of wind and joined Ray as he stood sentry duty on the edge of the narrow field. “We on time?”
Ray motioned toward the foggy shadows moving toward them. “Couple minutes early. Dog says he’s got it timed better than we do.”
“Good.” Angela watched the large wolf lead his new pack toward the fence line, where Dale and a few others were holding open two edges of the wire. It was just big enough for Dog to slip through and Angela was comforted by how the wolf gently nudged Dale’s hand as he went through.
It did surprise her when several of the ants did the same to Ray’s mate. She hadn’t realized the ants were bonding with people. It was another sign of the evolution they were currently going through.
The line of ants was huge. More than a hundred of the always-hungry insects followed Dog out of the camp and Angela wished them safe, swift travel. The ants weren’t very important to her plan, but they did matter. As for Dog, Angela could already feel Marc calling on Dog to protect Charlie. She had counted on it, but she’d made Dog swear to finish his part first. Marc hadn’t thought she would assign their son to something so terrible and she’d known he would send in Dog when he found out.
Am I getting smarter or becoming more devious? she wondered as the ants went through the fence.
There weren’t many camp members still here to see the insect parade, but those who did, stopped and stared. It wasn’t something you saw every day, even in this new world.
“Neil and Jeremy reported in an hour ago,” Shawn stated, coming up to hand her a mug of tea. “Seth is late.”
Angela sighed. “He’s got choices to make, like the rest of us. Leave him alone.”
Shawn shrugged. He had enough to do anyway without worrying over Seth going rogue.
“Same here,” Angela lied. “He’ll come through when we need it. What else have you got for me?”
Shawn began rattling things off and Angela waited until he was gone to record it all in her notebook. Until she got some sleep, she wouldn’t count on remembering.
Angela’s mind switched to Neil and Jeremy, their communications men for this ring of the battle. Those two and their team would relay messages, provide lookouts for working teams, and kill any soldiers they came across. Angela had several groups already out doing that very thing, and even if Seth took off, his team wouldn’t. They were the adult killers for the area where Becky and Charlie were, though Seth wasn’t supposed to find out where Becky was until she sent an update. She assumed Becky and Seth would stay together after that, had included it in their envelopes, but Angela needed time to get Beck so far into the mission that when Seth told her to go hide in camp, she would refuse. From the mental update Charlie had sent, it seemed like Becky was doing okay so far and Angela was pleased.
Not that her kids were now out there killing, but that Becky was finally understanding anyone could hold the power if they had the right tools and training. She didn’t have to be terrified when she was alone or keep a man close for protection. In time, Becky would be as dangerous, with a limitless supply of rage to fuel it.
Then, she would have to be guided the opposite way and taught to respect life again. It was an ongoing process with any army. Learn to kill, remember to live. It made it hard for a soldier to come home when they didn’t have tho
se two lines drawn clearly enough. The teenagers would be no different. After they’d become killers, they would have to be taught to be kids again. One usually smothered the other and Angela would try to keep that from happening. It was no good to win if your people didn’t have any light left amid all the darkness.
Chapter Nine
1
“Move out!”
The call echoed down the thousand-man convoy, sending nearby birds into the air in surprise. The rolling wheels and eager shouts also sent foxes and raccoons fleeing down the opposite path.
The soldiers took up a lot of room as they traveled, letting themselves get spaced out and careless. Men shot at windows of cabins they passed; angry to be on foot in the cold, and Donner let them. Their anger needed a target and he had one for them, but until the battles began, they require loose reins.
Donner stood with Philips, surveying the battalion of soldiers now marching for the new area he’d chosen as his base. Those bringing up the rear were headed to other locations, but they would all travel together for half the day. Their recon men had gone out this morning to secure the route and their destinations.
“It’s all ready, sir,” Philips stated, marking things off the list on his clipboard. He wisely didn’t mention their three missing teams. No one had returned from any of the ammo missions yet.
“Tell them to push in one hundred miles every week, starting right now. That’s it.”
“Yes, sir.”
He rushed off to deliver the orders and Donner headed for the small jeep waiting with a full squad of protection. His driver had the engine running, a man was there to open his door, and he slid inside the warm interior with a slight grimace. “Kill that heat.”
“Yes, sir,” his driver answered, obeying.
“Sorry, I was cold,” a voice stated from the back seat.
Donner twisted to look at the two people behind him. One was Louis, a Special Forces man with tattoos running the length of both brawny arms. He had joined their camp this morning and was holding a handgun.