The Price We Pay (Life After War Book 7)

by Angela White

  “Over here!” Quinn called. They’d seen the body fall, but hadn’t been close enough to tell who it was.

  Crista was still breathing when Quinn came into view. She’d been fighting to hold on, though, and she breathed a sigh of pain and relief.

  “Brady! Help her!”

  Marc was frozen for an instant as he saw who it was. The happy future he’d seen for her and Jeff had burst into flames.

  “What have you done?” Marc cried, rushing to her in desperation and fear. “I can’t fix this!”

  “I did the only thing I could,” Crista whispered, life fading faster than she could get her mind to form sentences. “She thinks she’s bad now. You have to save her.”

  Crista’s lids shut as she forced out Jeff’s name and then gave up the fight.

  Marc let the crushed woman be slid from his arms, horrified as the meaning sank in. Angie thought she’d turned bad. What would have caused that?

  It only took a minute to figure it out. Murder was the only thing big enough to crush his Angie this way. She’d killed someone and didn’t feel it was justified.

  Marc felt his stomach churn. She wouldn’t want to be around to influence anyone with the darkness it would have brought. That was why she’d stayed away from everyone. She wanted to die, and now, before she got to feel the baby move and became attached to a child she couldn’t birth.

  Marc felt his anguish from the rest stop return as the other pieces fell into place. She’d become cold and hard, with no encouragement and little hope. She’d used women and children to fight their war with the government. She’d allowed Adrian to live, time after time…

  Marc’s guts were like acid now. She’d fallen into a horrid depression and neither of the men who wanted her the most had recognized it. What would that cost them?

  3

  “I had to endanger us, to give us a chance to survive,” Angela tried to explain to those around the command tent. “The government isn’t producing offspring. We are. If I had killed us all and released Smallpox, it would have wiped out any chance at rebuilding civilization here and in the bunkers, where they have no women.”

  “But our country would have been gone,” Neil protested hotly.

  “Yes,” Angela agreed. “Anything is better than letting them rebuild their world just to destroy us all over again. We were a free country once. If I can’t return that, I’ll destroy it all.”

  Neil didn’t know what to say, thinking she’d finally gone crazy, but Jeff could appreciate her point now. They were Eagles, from Safe Haven, and being such avid patriots meant they had to make the ugly choices.

  Angela had, and so far, her bluff had won. Safe Haven was fleeing from the Oglethorpe base to Angela’s last location even now and the soldiers who were supposed to stop them were providing an escort. Those men would likely join the camp at some point and try to forget they were ever on the other side of it. Others would flee into the shadows of this apocalypse world and never be seen again. As for the soldiers still outside this site, Angela didn’t envy them the future that waited.

  Donner didn’t let her out of his sight, and found himself thinking Adrian being unconscious had been convenient.

  “Why did you dart Mitchel?” he asked suddenly.

  “He can’t take no for an answer.”

  Donner didn’t respond directly to that, but she could feel him running the clues through filters and coming up with the same conclusion that everyone else had. Adrian had come between her and Marc, and she now had no problems with turning him over.

  Angela hefted her kit over one shoulder, finally looking at her escorts and guards. “You have to trust me right now. If you don’t, it still falls.”

  “Do what your boss tells you to,” Donner ordered arrogantly from the flap.

  He received glowers for his interference, his very presence, and Angela let them go, enjoying it when Donner finally tired of the stress and delay he was causing, and turned to talk to Trey. Neither of them was okay with waiting in the middle of the enemy camp like this, but they hadn’t expected the big bunker to intervene and then take over the negotiations. The bunker had the power for this moment, but once Donner was out of here and on his own ground again, that would change.

  4

  “I need you to deliver my final words,” Angela told Neil and Shawn. “If you don’t, all of this will fall apart in a few days or weeks, and the war will restart. Only this time, we’ll all be bombed to keep us from releasing the virus. The rest of the survivors across the country will survive if the government can limit the blast radius and they know it. They’re trying very hard to find a way to do that right now.”

  “What do you need?” Shawn asked, willing to trust her after all the positive results and so few losses on their side.

  “I need you to escort me out to Donner, and then go code Raven.”

  “Who has the honor?” Neil asked, trying to pay attention. Jeremy had a place outside the chopper to protect Samantha if something went wrong and the trooper wasn’t going to argue giving Angela up for Sam. He felt awful about it, but in that moment, there was no choice for him.

  “And I forgive you for that, Neil,” Angela said softly. “I forgive all acts of self-preservation and command that you do the same for the others.”

  Angela handed her notebook to Cynthia. “No one but you, ever, for any reason. Read the last page first.”

  Cynthia put it with her own and fastened her shirt over it and then her coat. “Be careful.”

  Angela continued to the flap without responding and her grief was strong enough to let her control slip for an instant. She sent out a blast of power that rose into the sky and revealed the deathly shroud around them that had once been a bubble of protection.

  As Angela stepped onto the chopper, the bubble popped like a child’s delight and splattered the entire zone with sadness. Rain fell from the sky in a sudden downpour and mud began sliding as the weakened ground under it gave.

  “Marc is gonna fuck us up,” Shawn commented as Samantha and Becky were shoved from the chopper that immediately began to take off.

  “Yeah. Should we—”

  “No. We’ll do what Angela wanted. She has a plan and I think this was all a part of it. Have you ever seen her be taken so easily in anything?”

  Greg shook his head, finding a bit of hope in that. Even if she were giving up to save them all, she still would have fought to stay with them. Angela loved them.

  “It was,” Cynthia said, reading the last page instead of watching her boss leaving.

  There are exceptions to every rule, even mine, and vengeance will be Brady’s. Remember those two things and take control of this mob right now or you’ll lose them. Then give it to Marc and keep him on my line.

  It was short and sweet, right to the point, and Cynthia felt horror as she stared at the jerky script. Angela’s writing look terrified.

  Cynthia looked up to witness Angela staring at them with tears streaming down her face and turned to Daryl, unable to watch. She buried her head against his chest and wished for this nightmare to be over.

  Daryl held her close and kept an eye out for the only person who mattered now. They had their freedom if the government was to be believed, but the cost was so high that it might destroy them anyway.

  “What have we allowed?”

  Cynthia sucked in her anguish and wiped away the signs of it, but it wasn’t easy. “Get our men back on the fence. Angela expected Donner to break his word.”

  “But Donner isn’t controlling things now,” Neil protested. He wanted this to be over.

  “He is on this site,” Cynthia snapped, mirroring Angela’s annoyed tones when her common-sense orders weren’t obeyed fast enough. “If he cuts the radio with the bunker and takes charge of those men, we’re dead. The men outside these fences are still pissed about their losses, tired and hungry, and there’s a dangerous mountain to go down before they can do anything about those needs. Get on it!”

  Few of th
em had thought about that and Cynthia found herself alone with Shawn and Greg as her first order was carried out. It was amazing, awful, and addictive. How had Angela given this up?

  Survivors across the country had been listening to the epic battles playing out in Georgia and when the chopper rose into the air, it was immediately kept track of. As news spread, calls began to flood in from refugees using any communication method they could find.

  Daryl started writing it down as fast as he could, trying to catch every one and he made a rookie help.

  “Why?” Shane whined. “We only need the last known location.”

  Daryl snorted, taking a moment to make sure his writing was legible. “Brady should be strolling in here any minute. I plan to tell him I did something productive while I waited.”

  Shane paled and quickly began helping to copy down the locations and messages, also making sure his print was neat.

  5

  Donner stared at his prize with loathing. Because of her bluff, he had to be a government boy again for a while. “When did you go rouge?”

  Angela laughed, a harsh sound Marc wouldn’t have liked. “Little Rock.”

  Donner grunted. “I heard the reports. Also the rumors of the drained corpse. It’s part of the reason I was sent. The government knew if one of your group had gone bad, others would follow.”

  “And if we weren’t on their payroll, we were a threat,” Angela finished. “I know how it works. I planned the whole thing, remember?”

  Donner still wasn’t sure he believed that. “Then why are you here now?”

  Angela looked out the window of the chopper, able to discern lines of Safe Haven people leaving the battlefield. “For them. You’ve got me. Why would you need sheep?”

  “Agreed,” Donner said, understanding some of why she was so wanted. “That strength is rare. They’ll want you to hunt.”

  Angela didn’t take her eyes from the scene below, celebrating even as she mourned. “Is your name on the list?”

  Donner knew he should be scared. He’d witnessed her power, but he could only feel excited by the challenge. He leaned over to grab her by the jacket pulling her forward until their faces were inches apart. “Did you know the alpha can force you to do whatever he wants?”

  Donner leered down the front of her shirt “Anything.”

  Angela’s eyes went fire red as the witch leapt forward. “Yes, we did!”

  Donner screamed as the witch shoved into his mind, but he was used to such battles and the syringe plunged into Angela’s neck from his free hand. He’d been prepared.

  Angela sobbed as the drugs hit, not fighting as she had the last time. “You could toss me out now. Take a body back. All the same to them.”

  Her lashes shut and Donner frowned at the feeling of utter need and desolation that flooded his mind. How had she gotten in there at all? He didn’t have a weak spot for females, barely even cared for rape, which was the only type of sex he allowed himself. It prevented bonds from forming.

  Angela forced her lids open to beg once more, “You’d be doing me a kindness.”

  Donner recognized the broken spirit of a corrupted descendant—he’d been one himself a very long time ago—and smothered a curse as she fell forward into his lap.

  He hefted her onto the seat next to him, trying to ignore her smell, her allure. He wanted the powerful offspring she carried, not her. After the birth, she would be dropped to the government, who would be told she had become ill, causing the delay, and she was the only survivor. He would keep the children for his future protection, the government would have what they’d sent him for, and her little group of merry men wouldn’t ever know what had happened to her or Adrian. It was almost perfect.

  Donner looked at Trey. “Send them in.”

  Trey hit the radio with a leer. “Move in, men! Take them down!”

  And that’s why it all had to be this way, Angela thought, unable to move as the drugs coursed through her veins in painful beats. Marc was about to arrive and he would only want to come and save her, but she’d left clear instructions and he would need to end this last fight quickly. Her team would help him, and if fate were kind, it would all end tonight. At least for her people.

  Their new lives could begin come morning. Her own life, well…

  There was only darkness when she searched, and Angela fled toward it.

  6

  “Where is she?!”

  Marc’s fury lashed out, bringing men to their knees.

  He stormed through the center of the shocked soldiers blocking the damaged gate and most of those stunned men retreated in fear.

  “The ghost!”

  “Get out of here!”

  “Where is she?!” Marc screamed, fire blazing behind his eyes. “Where is my baby?!”

  Marc now understood Jennifer’s rage and vowed to help her as soon as he’d spilled blood right here.

  The soldiers were scattering from in front of the base, but not leaving, and Marc used his fury to blow the remaining piece of the burning gate open.

  The chaos inside didn’t calm him down. Parts of the fence had failed and an obviously savage battle had just taken place. Men were still bleeding and screaming, and smoke rolled across the site.

  Marc saw the Safe Haven side had won and stormed toward the bloody command tent where a dozen quivering masses of wounds and guilt were huddled.

  “Where is Angie?!” he roared.

  Greg waved a bloody hand toward the enemy. “Donner took her.”

  Marc drew back to deliver a vicious hit and spun out instead. He didn’t have time for vengeance. He had to find Angie.

  “She gave herself up,” Greg groaned, trying to keep his guts inside his stomach. The gas grenades the soldiers were using were almost debilitating. “She saved us…all.”

  Greg collapsed and Marc turned to scan the chaos. He’d spent a lot of years in situations like this one, but he’d never felt so much panic. Angie and his child were everything.

  “Dad!”

  Charlie and Tracy, both splattered in the same gore that he was, rounded the rubble, shoving kits at him. Charlie had arrived during the thick of the fighting and remained unnoticed as he slipped through one of the fence gaps. He’d found Tracy fighting with the others and fallen in with people to win or die.

  “Get her back.”

  Marc snatched the kits that Tracy held out and was gone before either of them could say anything else.

  Charlie hugged Tracy close, grateful they were now free and terrified he wouldn’t see his mom or dad again.

  Standing by the smoldering gate, Cynthia held out the paper, not making eye contact.

  Marc snatched it, reading as he went.

  Make sure they’re all safe before you come for me. Or don’t bother to come for me at all.

  Outside the gate, a line of soldiers was lingering, still thinking of trying to claim the rewards on some of the people inside, and they watched Marc nervously, waiting for him to cross the smoldering threshold they’d blown open as he arrived.

  Marc growled at the soldiers, furious and beyond patience. “Surrender now, while you can!”

  It was a moment where Marc wasn’t sure how it would go. He flashed a demon’s red eyes at them as Dog came to his side.

  I see every one of you, he sent out mentally, causing men to wince. No mercy.

  David, in the front and sure to die first, took a slow step forward. “You’ll let us leave?”

  “You’ll be pows that I’ll trade for my wife and child. Or you’ll become Safe Haven members. No one else lives passed today.”

  “What if we want to go our own way?” David asked. “Most of us were forced to come here.”

  Marc saw men waiting for a solution they could live with and realized Angie had been right again. With the need for blood crying in protest, he gave them a way to live. “Fine. Get out of the state, immediately. Men found still here in two days will be shot on sight.”

  That was enough for David and
he carefully lowered his weapon, placed it on the ground. “I don’t want to die fighting my fellow countrymen. I’m done.”

  And with that, David left, calmly pushing through the shocked soldiers who’d followed him this far.

  Marc still didn’t think that was enough, but the other frontline fighters started lying down or holstering their weapons and leaving, and the wolfman sent the message in anger.

  It worked, Angie. We’re free. Now kill him and come home!

  Silence…

  Angie!

  7

  “Can someone help us for a moment?”

  Marc and Cynthia, in the middle of organizing transportation off the mountain for their wounded, turned around to rip heads off at the interruption.

  Neither of them spoke for a moment as they took in the four people standing at the gate.

  The two women were tall and lean, with bronze skin and glowing red eyes. The men were paler than anyone in Safe Haven and taller, towering over even Brady and Kenn.

  The activities taking place slowly came to a halt and a team of Eagles joined Marc.

  “There is no need,” the shortest woman stated with a friendly tone. “We were called here by the alphas.”

  Marc understood only a little of it and scanned their minds for trouble. At least he tried.

  “You are too new,” the woman explained. “In time you may be able to read our thought. Your gifts are still growing. We have reached our full potential.”

  “Why are you here?” Cynthia asked, not liking the way the woman was gawking at Marc or Kenn.

  “We are answering a call for help.” Dari repeated. “Much has happened here. We are too late?”

  Cynthia nodded and Marc resumed the loading, letting her handle it. Cynthia was in charge and Marc agreed with it. The only thing he cared about was getting these people settled with the rest of the camp.

  “They took Angela and Adrian. She gave herself up to let us live.”

  Dari considered it for a moment, scanning herself, noting how many of their kind were here. “Then we should offer our protections as well, and when you leave on the hunting trip, we shall be your escorts.”