by Payne, T. L.
“We’re all tired. Why don’t we sleep on it and see how we feel in the morning?” Scott suggested.
“I don’t think that will change my mind. That incident at the Home Depot today sealed it for me. We just need to get away from all these people. It isn’t safe for us here. If we leave a first light tomorrow, we could be at Alicia’s by early afternoon,” Raine said.
She was scared. Scott could understand that. They all look frightened. He’d never planned on getting trapped in the city. He and JJ were supposed to deliver Mrs. Ward to her sister’s and then Scott would drop JJ at her parents’. He should be halfway to Florida by now. Scott ran his hand across his brow and down his stubbled cheek. If he couldn’t convince them to help him, he’d have to get the Suburban on his own. One way or another, he would be leaving the city in that vehicle.
“All right. Let’s get some rest. We’ll need it to get away from here quickly tomorrow. Let’s set a guard in case they find our tracks and follow us here. Okay?” Scott said as he stood and turned toward the door.
Raine followed Scott.
“Antonio and I can take first watch. Tom and Gage, you want to get the second?” Raine asked.
“Is someone going to watch our prisoner?” Brandon asked.
No one spoke.
“I guess I’ll watch him,” Brandon said, heading back to where they’d left the kid.
“What do you plan to do with him when we leave?" Lucy asked.
Scott turned toward the room housing their prisoner.
“Let him go,” Scott said.
Unable to sleep, Scott stared up at the ceiling tiles. His mind just wouldn’t shut off. Between that, the hard floor, and the cold temperature, he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep at all. His mind replayed the events of the day. His head was filled with all the things he wished he’d done to make the mission to secure a vehicle more successful. Even still, he wasn’t sure he could have predicted that Abbey’s men would interfere with their plan.
He ran through dozens of scenarios trying to come up with a way to get the SUV on his own tomorrow. Maybe, in the long run, it would work better without the others. He would be able to move much faster and react swifter without having to worry about the others getting hurt. He didn’t think it was a good idea for them to try to make the rest of the trip on foot, but he had to look out for himself now. He had an obligation to Lily. He hoped that JJ and the others made it to their destinations safely.
Scott was awakened by yelling. He sat up. Disoriented. Unsure where exactly he was. More yelling. A male voice.
Who is that?
“Brandon!” Scott yelled as he threw back the saddle blanket and jumped to his feet. He looked around the room. The others were doing the same.
“What’s happening?” Alicia asked.
“Wait here. Lock the door,” Scott said as he slowly approached the hall.
Scott saw no one in the corridor. He crossed over and slowly pushed the door open.
Scott crouched and moved slowly to the room where Brandon and the prisoner were supposed to be. The room was empty.
Brandon had let him get away.
He cursed under his breath and turned toward the door. When he stepped back into the corridor, he ran into Brandon running toward the stairs.
“Where’s JJ?” Scott asked, running to catch up.
Brandon pointed to the door. “She ran that way. She went after the kid.”
Scott pushed Brandon out of the way. “What the hell happened? Where is everyone?”
“I only saw JJ. I don’t know where the others are,” Brandon said.
Scott checked every room but saw no one. He reached for the knob of the door to the stairs. He slowly pulled it open and eased through, heading up the stairs to find the others. Scott heard footfalls echoing in the stairwell. “Raine?” Scott whispered. “Tom? Gage?”
“What’s going on?” Raine asked as she approached him.
“Brandon, go find the others and tell them to get ready to move,” Scott said as he turned to face Raine.
“The kid got away.” Scott held the door open for her.
Raine hesitated.
“We have to go before he brings his buddies back with him,” Scott said. “Is Antonio with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Grab him and let’s get out of here,” Scott said.
Raine and Antonio followed Scott back down the stairwell. He eased the door open and poked his head around the doorjamb. A bullet whizzed by, barely missing him and lodging in the wall two feet to his right.
He brought his pistol up and fired. The figure retreated down the corridor and out the hole in the glass by the door.
“Go! Everyone, go! Get to the next building and hide,” Scott whispered.
Raine and Antonio ran to get the others while Scott advanced down the corridor.
Holding the flashlight with his left hand and aiming the pistol with his right, Scott walked the length of the building without encountering the gunman. He turned and hurried back to the door the others had fled through. Scott hit the door and scanned the parking lot between the two buildings. He caught sight of Sheena’s purple coat as she crawled through an opening in the side glass by the door of the next building. He had no way to know if JJ was with them.
Scott ran across the parking lot to the next building. As he crouched to crawl through the hole, he saw flashlight beams bouncing in the distance.
We need to get out of here before they find us.
“JJ?” Scott yelled as he ran through the building.
He flicked on his flashlight, shined it on the floor, and followed their snowy footprints until they disappeared.
Scott crossed the main lobby and moved down another corridor calling for the rest of his group.
“In here,” a voice called back.
Scott shined the light to his right. Lucy stood in the doorway, her pistol in both hands.
“Is everyone else with you?” Scott asked.
“Everyone but JJ," Lucy said.
Scott whipped around and shined the flashlight’s beam on Brandon. “We have to go find her.”
Scott didn’t wait for him to respond. He grabbed Brandon’s sleeve and spun him around.
“I’ll go with you,” Raine said, following them to the door.
Scott stopped for a second. Having more people out there for him to be responsible for wasn’t a good thing in his mind.
“No, wait here by the door. She won’t know where we went. Keep her here if she shows up.”
Scott and Brandon slipped back through the hole. He ran and crouched behind a dumpster. He listened for voices or more gunfire. He heard none. Scott expected to at least hear the crunching of snow as the men searched for them. He heard nothing.
He rose and ran to the corner of the building. Scott pressed himself against the wall and made his way toward the door.
“Stay here and watch for Suit’s men,” Scott said.
“Where are you going?” Brandon asked.
“I’m going to follow JJ’s footprints,” Scott said, flicking on his flashlight once again.
He pointed the beam toward the ground and scanned back and forth until he found them. She had headed for the trees lining the road behind the buildings.
“What’s she doing?” Scott whispered under his breath.
He walked back to where he’d left Brandon and gestured for him to follow. Scott and Brandon headed into the brush. Her prints were harder to spot in the brush. They continued up the hill to the road. Scott flicked the light off.
“Did you lose them?” Brandon asked.
“No. I don’t want to broadcast to Suit’s men that we are out here.”
“Scott,” JJ whispered.
“JJ? Where are you?”
“Over here.” Scott swung around as JJ climbed out from under a cedar tree.
“Thank God. Are you all right? You aren’t hit, are you?” Scott said, rushing to her.
“No. But the kid got away.�
�
“I know. Come on. We need to get the others and get out of here.”
“I’m sorry, Scott,” she said.
“You aren’t at fault.”
“He’ll tell them all about us and the plan about the Suburban. I know you needed that car,” JJ said as she dusted snow from her coat and pants.
“There’s nothing we can do about that now. Let’s get out of here. We’ll have to find some place to hide until they decide to stop looking for us,” Scott said.
Scott led the group back toward the creek they’d followed earlier. Just over from the self-storage facility, he found a small single-story brick office building. This time, they entered through a back door. Antonio guarded the front door and Lucy the back. He wasn’t sure how many hours until daylight. He doubted anyone would be able to sleep, but he was sure he wouldn’t. He wasn’t going to let them get the drop on him like that again.
With everyone settled into their blankets on the floor in a back office, Scott was starting to relax a little. No one had gotten hurt. Which was a miracle considering that Suit’s men were able to sneak up on them like that.
“Brandon, what the hell happened back there?” Scott asked, trying not to lose his cool but failing.
“I’m sorry,” Brandon said.
“You let the kid get away?” JJ asked.
“I’m sorry.” Brandon paused and cleared his throat. “He said he had to pee.”
“And you let him go by himself?” JJ asked.
Scott couldn’t see her face in the dark, but from the tone of her voice, she was as angry as he was.
“No.” He paused again. “I untied him.”
“What the hell?” Sheena barked at him. “What were you thinking?”
“It was a choice between untying him or holding his pecker. I wasn’t going to—”
“Shut up. Just shut your face. You put my boy in danger. That’s messed up.”
Sheena didn’t hold back. Scott didn’t blame her. If he’d had Lily with him, he’d have gone ballistic on the dude for a stunt like that.
“How did his men get there so fast?” Scott asked.
Brandon shrugged.
“They must have been close by.”
Scott drew in a breath. Furrows grooved the skin of his forehead. “How long was the kid gone before you woke us?”
Brandon looked at his feet. His face flushed. “I’m not sure.”
“What the hell,” Sheena said, throwing her hands in the air.
“They’ll be out looking for us in the morning. They’re going to follow our footprints in the snow and find us here. We shouldn’t wait. We should go now,” JJ said.
DeAndre started to cry. Sheena pulled him into her lap and covered him with her blanket.
“We can’t go wandering around in the dark,” Sheena said, stroking DeAndre’s back.
“We should go back to Ms. Abbey’s,” DeAndre said.
“We can’t do that, Dee. It wouldn’t be right to bring our problems to them,” Sheena said.
“I don’t think they’ll start searching before first light. Let’s get some sleep and we will plan to be out of here before sunup. Okay?” Scott said.
Scott was staring out the window, fuming about Brandon’s screwup, when he heard something. He sat up straighter and tilted his head, listening to see how close it was. He heard it again but couldn’t be sure what it was.
“Scott. I think those are gunshots,” Lucy said.
“They’re definitely gunshots. It sounds just like it did in our old neighborhood. Right, Raine?” Sheena said.
“It does,” Raine said.
Scott moved to the door, turned the knob, and pulled it open just a crack. He waited. Listening. He didn’t have to wait long. A series of two-round bursts sounded in the distance. It was definitely gunfire, but where?
Chapter 27
Home Town Realty
Manchester, Missouri
February 23rd
“Should we leave while they're distracted with whatever they're doing?” Alicia asked. Her big, brown eyes glistened with tears.
Scott was just about to agree when he heard gunfire from another direction.
“Is that coming from behind us now?” Raine asked, running to the back door.
Tom was standing in the open doorway.
“Was that gunfire behind us?” she asked as she reached him. Scott and JJ ran up beside her. Scott pushed past them and leaned against the doorjamb.
“You should get out of the doorway,” Scott said.
Tom stepped back inside and moved to a window next to the door.
There was more gunfire. Raine couldn’t tell which direction it had come from this time. It seemed like it was all around them.
“What’s going on out there? Who are they shooting at?” JJ asked.
Scott closed the door and headed to the front window. “I don’t know, but whoever it is, they’re shooting back.”
JJ followed him. “It can’t be Abbey’s people then. They don’t have guns.”
“Maybe it's the grocery store group. They have guns,” Antonio said.
Raine moved across the room away from the windows and doors. “I thought they were working together?”
“They were. Maybe now they aren’t,” Scott said.
“You think we caused that?” Raine asked.
“Could be. They might put the blame for what we did on those guys. I mean… They don’t know who we are. The kid might have assumed we were with them. I just don’t know. What I do know is that we can’t leave with them running around shooting at anything that moves.”
Raine leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. “I agree, but we have no food and very little water. Just how long can we wait for them to calm down and go back to the business of looting?”
“We’ll have to wait until night and slip out of town under the cover of darkness. We’ll follow that creek south and stay off the streets,” Scott said.
They stayed in their bedrolls most of the day listening to sporadic gunfire.
“Shouldn’t they have run out of bullets by now?” Raine asked.
JJ rolled over to face her. “Suit’s men must be really well stocked on ammo.”
Scott arched his back, raised his hands over his head, and yawned. “The other group sounds like they’re trying to conserve ammo. Theirs are the two-round bursts. Then you hear the other group return with half a magazine. I think that the better-armed group has less training,”
“Is that good or bad?” Alicia asked.
Scott shrugged. “It depends on how much ammo they have. They could run out before the other group.”
“The best scenario is that they kill each other. Then we can walk out of here and not worry about getting chased down or shot,” Antonio said.
Raine considered it. That would be the best scenario. Then they could just take the Suburban and drive out of the city.
But to where?
Where could they all go that was any safer, warmer or had food? Was there such a place now? Their plan to stay at Alicia’s had always been temporary. Everyone was aware that staying in the city wasn’t sustainable. How long would it take for the government to get everything working again? What were they doing to make this all better?
“Alicia, how far away is your sister’s place?” Raine asked.
Alicia sat up and rubbed sleep from her eyes. “She has a little farm between Scottsdale and Cedar Hill.”
“How far away is that?”
Alicia yawned then said, “About twenty miles or so.”
“That’s not far enough,” Raine said, more to herself than to Alicia.
Sheena slid back in her bedroll and sat up. “Far enough for what?”
Raine rolled over onto her back and pulled her blanket up to her chin. “Not far enough away from the city.”
Sheena sat up and crossed her legs. “How far is enough?”
Raine thought for a moment.
“What are you thinking, Raine?” Tom a
sked.
“We were all heading to Alicia’s to regroup and make a plan. We all knew that we couldn’t stay there. I think we should decide now where we are headed when we leave here. We could spend a night at Alicia’s if it isn’t out of the way, but I think we should be finding a place to stay until this thing is over,” Raine said.
No one spoke.
“I agree with Raine. Cedar Hill is too close to the city. You'll have hundreds of thousands of people who'll be fanning out in every direction looking for food. That’s a recipe for disaster,” Scott said.
“I… That’s where my family is, so…” Alicia said.
“Oh, Alicia. I never meant that we would all come and impose on your sister. I was just thinking how far from the city we’d need to go to find a farm or somewhere that’s been abandoned or something,” Raine said.
Alicia sat up and pulled her blanket around her shoulders. “I know. I just… I don’t think my sister will leave her home and animals. But you’re right. It won’t be long before hordes of people migrate out of the city and will be on her doorstep begging for food.”
“What do you think she’ll do then?” Sheena asked.
“My sister is a sweet, Christian woman. She’ll feed them. She’d never turn a hungry person away. Her husband, though… He was in the service. He is less trusting of people and I’m not sure he’d be so willing to let them on his property.”
“Depending on how many of them there are, he might not have a choice. One man can’t hold off dozens of people by himself,” Scott said.
Alicia looked concerned. Raine didn’t blame her. It felt like they were never going to be safe, no matter where they went. No matter where they sought refuge, there was going to be the chance of dangerous people. She’d never been as truly aware of the role of law enforcement in holding society together as she was now. Even with the lights out and everything not working, if they had a strong police presence, like at the Red Cross shelter, violence would be curtailed and give society some measure of safety. How long could they all survive without that?