by Payne, T. L.
Brandon glanced from Scott back to Raine.
“I think we should get the he…um...heck out of here,” Brandon said, glancing back at Sheena.
Sheena smiled back, showing off her brilliant white teeth.
“It’s too dangerous to go out there now with that group hunting us. They have vehicles and guns,” Raine said.
“I’m going to go check out the dude they captured,” Scott said. “You coming, JJ?”
Raine stood in the doorway and watched as JJ and Scott rushed down the hall after Abbey and the two men. She was torn. She wanted to get away from there, but it scared her to think of being out there so vulnerable without knowing how many of them there were and how many other vehicles they had.
“Wait up,” Raine called after them.
“Me too,” Lucy said.
Chapter 20
Home Depot Home Improvement Store
Manchester, Missouri
February 21st
Scott caught up with Abbey and the two men in the stockroom by the loading bay door.
“Who the hell is he?” the man in a blue parka and black balaclava asked.
His blue eyes drilled into Scott before looking Lucy up and down.
“They rescued Rob and Rachelle from that guy’s buddies. Rob was shot. They got him back here,” Abbey said.
“Is Rob okay?” the man asked.
“The doc is working on him. She said the bullet went through, but he’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Where’d you find him?” Abbey asked, turning her attention to the man on his knees with a pistol pressed to the back of his skull.
“He breached our perimeter defense behind the furniture store. His two buddies couldn’t join us,” the man said.
“Has he said anything yet?" Scott asked.
The blue parka guy whipped around and glared at Scott. Scott squared his shoulders and tipped his head back slightly. The man was sizing him up. Scott could see the man’s body stiffen and his hands clenching into fists.
JJ stepped around Parka Guy and walked over in front of the man on the ground. She grabbed the man by his disheveled black hair and tilted his head back. “You speak English?” she asked him.
The man shook his head.
“Are you with the cartel?”
The man’s eyes grew wide. His lips parted, and he started to speak, then he closed his mouth.
JJ leaned in and twisted the man’s head from side to side.
“What are you looking for?” Scott asked her.
“Tattoos. Scars,” she said as she released the man’s hair.
The prisoner dropped his head to his chest.
“Well?”
“He’s not with the cartel,” JJ said.
“What cartel?” Raine asked, stepping around the parka guy.
“It’s nothing,” JJ said, returning to Scott’s side.
“Have you had a run-in with a cartel?” Blue Parka Guy asked.
JJ shook her head. Parka Guy looked at Scott.
Scott wasn’t going to tell them. That was JJ’s business. He didn’t think the drug cartel that her husband and father-in-law were messed up with would be able to follow her all the way from St. Francois County to Manchester. Not without a working car for sure and the last he’d seen them, they were in a ditch. JJ was just being paranoid. He supposed that in her circumstances, he would be too.
Lucy stepped around Parka Guy and approached their prisoner.
“How many are in your group?” she asked.
The man continued staring at the floor.
She asked him again, this time in Spanish. The man looked up for a moment then returned his gaze to the floor.
Blue Parka Guy stepped in front of Scott and grabbed the man’s hair.
“Steve,” Abbey said, stepping forward. “Don’t.”
Steve looked up and glared at her. He didn’t release the man’s hair. The short, pudgy man holding the pistol to the back of the man’s head took two steps back and lowered his weapon.
“Steve, we need info. Do you speak Spanish?” Abbey asked, placing a gloved hand on Steve’s arm.
His nostrils flared. He pushed the prisoner’s head back then yanked his hand away.
“Fine. He ain’t gonna tell you any more than the last one did,” Steve said as he stomped off.
Abbey turned to Scott.
“Steve’s a hothead. He shoots first and asks questions later. That isn’t always a bad thing with a sentry, but not when you need intel on a rival group.”
Abbey glanced over her shoulder, looking for the man with the pistol.
“Aaron, get our new guest here a chair.”
Aaron nodded and grabbed a chair from beside the bay door. He placed it beside the prisoner and nudged the man with the toe of his boot. The prisoner didn’t move.
Scott reached out and took the prisoner’s arm. JJ stepped over, and the two of them lifted the man to the chair.
“Aaron, get the man some water,” Abbey said. “You go with him, Mark.”
After the two men exited the room, Abbey turned to follow them.
“Let me know what you find out?” she said as she slowly closed the door.
“Right away,” Scott said.
For over an hour, Scott questioned the man with Lucy translating. He wanted the man to willingly answer his questions about the other group. He needed to know how many there were, how many guns they had, and more importantly, how many vehicles they had. That SUV was just what he needed to get to Florida and find his daughter. It was the first hope he’d felt since Mrs. Ward’s jeep had been hijacked. Getting to Lily was his singular goal. Until he’d hooked up with Brandon and Raine’s group, he’d held out little hope that he could make it to Florida. If they could somehow get their hands on that SUV, he could get these folks away from here and then get on the road to finding his daughter.
Scott had reached the point of frustration that he was almost ready to try Steve’s method when Raine knelt beside the prisoner. Scott glanced over to JJ. She shrugged, leaned against the wall, and crossed her arms.
“I know you want to protect your family. That is all we want too. We have kids here. Do you have kids?” Raine asked, looking up for Lucy to translate for her.
The prisoner looked first at Lucy and then to Raine. He stared at her for a long moment before nodding.
“We don’t want to hurt you or your family. We just want to protect ours from some very bad men in your group. Can you help us?” Raine asked.
The prisoner shook his head. Raine walked around in front of him, knelt again, and placed her hand on the man’s knee.
“If you don’t tell us what we need to know, that man that brought you here will send word to your group that you talked. What do you think that group will do to your family then?” Raine said.
The man jumped to his feet. The chair flew back and skidded across the floor.
“You can’t do that. You don’t know these people. They are loco. They won’t just kill my family. They’ll make them wish they were dead. I have to get back there. I need to protect my wife and daughter,” the prisoner said in English.
“You help us, and we will do what we can to get your family out. Okay?” Scott asked. He half meant it. If he could do so without risking any of their people, he’d try to save the man’s family. He understood the man’s position. An image of his own wife and daughter trapped with evil people flashed into his mind. He pushed it away. It was too terrible to think about. He first needed to get to Florida and find them. He prayed they hadn’t fallen to the same fate as this man’s family.
Thirty minutes later, Scott knew all he needed to know about the group holed up in the grocery store. But he was no closer to figuring out how to get his hands on that SUV or one of the two other working vehicles the group had.
“Forty people! No wonder they are trying to grab up every bit of food and gear they can,” Abbey said.
Scott sat across the desk from Abbey in the store manager’s office. J
J sat to his right. Raine, Lucy, and Brandon stood by the closed door as Scott filled the woman in on what they’d learned from their prisoner.
Abbey placed her hands on the desk and steepled her fingers. “A second group? We didn’t know. That complicates things considerably.” She leaned back in her chair. “We’re outgunned. We have a couple of pistols, and they have rifles and a seemingly endless supply of ammo.”
“They don’t seem to be content to peacefully coexist,” Raine said.
Abbey shook her head. “We’re competing for the same resources. With that many mouths to feed, they can’t afford to lose much.”
“It looks like staying in this area is unsustainable then. Have you considered moving?” Brandon asked.
She furrowed her brow and looked up at him. “And go where?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere less crowded?” Brandon said.
“I have seventeen people here. Five are children and two are elderly. I can’t imagine asking them to leave here without having another place to go. Without a working vehicle, we’d be on foot. Besides, the odds of finding another area with food and supplies that hasn’t already been claimed is next to zero.”
Scott nodded. She was right. By now, groups like this one would have formed all over the city. He imagined that none of them would be too welcoming to a new group moving into their neighborhood.
“It appears to be only a matter of time before you’re in an all-out war with that group from the grocery store. How are you going to keep them from running right in here?” Raine asked.
“So far, our perimeter warning system has worked well in alerting us when they encroach on our territory.”
“What if they all attack at once?” Scott said.
“Then we’ll deal with it. Honestly, I like those odds better than wandering the streets looking for another place,” Abbey said. She rose and walked around the desk. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go discuss this news with my security team.”
Brandon opened the door for her.
“Mind if we stay for a bit and talk about our plans?” Scott asked.
Abbey stopped in the doorway. “Do they involve endangering my people?”
Scott hesitated a moment before answering. He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to lie to the woman. They’d graciously taken them in, so he felt some sense of duty to her.
“No. We just need to form a plan to get on the road is all,” he said.
She nodded and pulled the door shut behind her.
“I think she should be more concerned about that Steve fellow endangering her people,” JJ said.
“I agree, but he may come in handy,” Scott said.
“Oh, yeah? How so?” Brandon asked, walking around the desk and taking a seat in Abbey’s chair. He leaned forward, ran a hand over the edge of the desk, then leaned back and placed his hands behind his head.
Brandon looked forlorn, as if recalling a dream that had been dashed. He likely had been chasing after a corner office with a window view. Not Scott. That was one thing he’d never wanted. That had been his ex-wife’s dream for him, but Scott had never been the paper-pusher type. He wouldn’t get rich working construction, but he made a decent living. When he’d dropped out of engineering school, he’d kind of drifted from job to job. He’d stuck with drywalling. He liked it.
“I can’t speak for your group, but I don’t intend to stick around here and get dragged into their war,” Scott said.
Brandon leaned forward, placed his hands on the desk, and laced his fingers. “I agree. Especially since they have rifles and we don’t.”
Scott looked to Raine.
“I just want to get out of the city. I agree with Abbey that anywhere you go in the city will be like this. We were headed to Alicia’s to figure things out, but now seeing how things are here, I think we should just keep going and get as far from the city as possible,” Raine said.
“I agree,” Lucy said.
“We’re heading south. JJ has family about two hours from here. I’ve got farther to travel,” Scott said.
“Which direction are you going?” Brandon asked.
Scott looked to JJ then back to Brandon. “South.”
He wasn’t sure he should reveal his travel plans to these people. He didn’t know them, and it didn’t seem like any of them had a clue what they were going to do past the next hour.
“Maybe we can work together to get out of the city at least,” JJ said.
Raine and Brandon nodded.
“What do you have in mind?” Raine asked.
Chapter 21
Home Depot Home Improvement Store
Manchester, Missouri
February 21st
The Home Depot manager’s small office was crowded with the eleven members of Raine’s group. DeAndre sat in the middle of the desk while the others leaned against the walls.
Scott sat on the edge of the desk. He cleared his throat and told the others what they’d learned about the other group.
“So, we know that the group from the grocery store is large and consists of families, including children. Most of their group have no military or police training. Their leader, a woman named Sherry, was the manager of the grocery store. Sherry recruited most of the men in the group to help her guard the store from looters in the early days of the blackout. Some of their members worked there as well. After the EMP, they brought their families to live at the store. Sherry offers them food for protection.”
“Sounds like a good gig for her,” Brandon said.
“Yeah. Our prisoner said that she’s paranoid,” Raine said.
“He said that she is loco—crazy—and everyone except her head of security is scared of her,” Scott said.
“She sounds like someone we don’t want to mess with then,” Alicia said.
Raine pictured the look on the man’s face as he described how their leader wore a key around her neck to the warehouse where all the food was stored. She’d exiled someone for drinking too much water. They had to keep all the children silent when she was around them. That place sounded like hell to Raine.
“I would agree. But hard to avoid since we can’t move without having them shoot at us,” Scott said.
“How is that possible? I mean, even if they had dozens and dozens of people on patrol, they couldn’t watch every store on this street. We traveled over a mile from the sports store to here,” Raine pointed out.
“I think that the men that are patrolling the streets aren’t staying at the grocery store. I don’t think our prisoner even knew who they were. He couldn’t tell the two dead guys’ names or what they even looked like.”
“So how are they connected?” Lucy asked.
“I think they’re a separate group. Think mafia types. I don’t think Sherry is telling the others that she’s paying those guys for protection.”
“What does that mean for us?” Raine asked.
“It means that the group in the grocery store isn't our problem. It’s this band of troublemakers roaming the streets. They obviously have lookouts posted all along this street. When they attack, it's in small numbers of two or three,” Scott said.
“Still, how do they control so much territory?” Raine asked.
“I think they have guard-posts along this commercial stretch of town. They are systematically scavenging the stores. They have to have lookouts posted. I imagine that they’ve scared off all the residents nearby or they are too afraid to come over here now.”
“We need to find out where their main headquarters is then and get eyes on their operation,” Brandon said.
“I was thinking the same thing. You volunteering?” Scott asked.
Brandon shrugged noncommittally.
“I’ll go,” Raine said.
“Me too,” JJ said.
“The four of us then?” Scott asked.
Brandon nodded.
Raine wasn’t sure why she volunteered to spy on the group that had chased them. She had no training for such a thing. Perf
orming stakeouts was only something she’d read about in novels. She just knew she needed to do something to help get Sheena, DeAndre, and the others somewhere safe. But with Antonio, Tom, and Gage injured, it just left her to do it. She didn’t know the others. She couldn’t trust them to care what happened to her group from the Delmar Arms Apartments.
Although Raine wasn’t sure how many guards were watching the Home Depot, since Abbey hadn’t volunteered that information, she felt reasonably sure that Sheena and the others would be safe while she followed Scott out to spy on the group that had attacked them at the sports store. Abbey had at first protested their idea to gather intel on the group that shot one of her members, but Scott convinced her that it was only a matter of time before they came for what her group had.
Everyone had agreed that they should wait until dark to run the reconnaissance mission. Raine liked the idea of being less visible, but it was hard to move around in the dark.
While a woman in her mid-thirties led Alicia, Sheena, Lucy, and the guys somewhere deeper inside the building to bed down for the night, Raine, JJ, Scott, Brandon, and the others prepared for a long night in the cold.
“Here,” Raine said, handing Brandon two plastic shopping bags.
“What are these for?”
“To put over your socks. If you place the bags between the layers, it will help insulate them better. Your base layer sock will get damp from sweating, but the outer layer will remain dry.”
“I thought you were from Florida,” Brandon said.
Raine tugged a shopping bag over her thin wool socks, pulled on her thicker ones, and stuffed her feet into her boots.
“I like winter hikes in the mountains. It’s almost magical there that time of year.”
“You’re from Florida?” Scott asked.
Raine nodded and handed him two sacks.
“What part?”
Raine pulled her laces tight and tucked the ends into the top of her boots.