“Meechum, you check the back. Make sure we have a path to run if things get too crazy. The car is back there if we need it.” Though every parking lot had abandoned vehicles, he’d wanted to keep his car closer to the structure. His worry had paid off.
It only took the fire starters a few minutes to ensure the entire fast food joint was engulfed in flames. They even walked around to the side and torched the drive-through ordering station. When they were done, they holstered their weapons and gave each other high-fives.
“Here we go,” he said. “If they come over here, we’ll have to—” He cut himself short when the leader started his bike, revved his motor, and did a wheelie across the highway. He put the front wheel down when he came onto the lot for the store.
“Shit,” he said with forced calm. “This is happening.” He looked at Kyla. “Go get Meechum. Bring your rifle and any spare ammo.”
He had a minute alone with Emily. They watched in silence as the rest of the men got on their rides and crossed the street. He kept on the lookout for more bikes up and down the highway, but there didn’t seem to be any others close by. That was great, but they still had to deal with the seven right in front of them.
“Can we do this?” Emily asked quietly.
Ted met her eyes. “We have to.”
Meechum’s heavy boots clopped on the tile floor as she ran back to her spot behind the soda. “What’s the plan?” she asked.
Ted gave Emily a serious glance, then looked to the Marine and his arriving niece. It wasn’t much of a defensive unit, but they had the element of surprise on their side. The men in the lot hopped off their bikes and still high-fived each other like they’d won the Superbowl, but there wasn’t much time to organize his friends.
“We’re in a line,” he said matter-of-factly. “When they get ready out there, only shoot at the bastards closest to your end. When they get their flamethrowers ready, we’ll try to drop them all at once.” It would be tough, since there were four of them and seven of the enemy. He’d thought about shooting them as they came into the lot, but he worried the chaos would give one of them a chance to dive behind a parked car or ride away. If he waited until they were primed for the attack, they would be vulnerable.
“Spread out a little.” He motioned for the women to give about five feet between each other. What he didn’t say was that if one of the guys shot a spray of flames, it couldn’t get them all at once. If he’d had more time to prepare, he might have sent someone onto the roof, or the side of the building, to give multiple angles of attack. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a second to spare. He had to summarize years of marksmanship into a few canned phrases, mostly for Kyla’s benefit, he assumed. “Aim for the big part of their body, not their heads. Breathe steady. Squeeze—”
Kyla interrupted. “I’ve been trained by the best, Unk. I’ll do you proud.”
He was a proud uncle, no doubt about it. Her mom would be yelling bloody murder at him for putting her daughter in such a dangerous spot once again, but he figured even she’d be proud of how Kyla was able to defend herself.
“On three,” Ted said quietly. He aimed his rifle center of mass on the guy giving the orders, right in the middle of the seven men.
“One…”
The black-clad figures slowly moved into their positions, creating a semi-circle in front of the store. Their leader waved back and forth to spread them out from each other, the same as Ted had done to his force.
“Two…”
Once he seemed happy with the deployment, the head guy lifted his flamethrower wand.
“Three!”
East St. Louis, IL
Tabby faced the unusual tank with her spine straight and without flinching. The hum created by the machine made her eyeballs shake in their sockets, and her stomach wanted to return its contents, but she wasn’t giving anyone the satisfaction of seeing her show fear. To make the point, she stood in front of Audrey and Peter.
“Come on! Just try it!” she screamed, knowing it was insane.
The teens had been holding hands, but each also put a palm on her shoulders. She heard them saying “I love you,” to each other, adding to the sense it was all about to end.
At least we’ll go out together.
The tank’s energy seemed to peak, and she believed it was about to zap her, but it abruptly shut off. The heightened tension and unsettling vibrations left her legs wobbly. The three of them had to hold each other up.
That was when the men in black jumpsuits ran in.
“Who are you?” Tabby yelled, still fighting the effects of the machine. “We demand to see someone in charge! Why did you kill my dogs?”
The strange men didn’t reply. They searched them for weapons then dragged the three of them into a Humvee parked outside the warehouse. Hours went by as they were transferred to different modes of transportation, including a plane, but they finally ended up in what seemed like a prison van.
“Are we there yet?” Peter laughed from within the small cabin of the vehicle. It seemed like they were in the enclosed back of a pickup truck, but it was small, and quiet, and with barely enough room for the three of them, so she couldn’t say for sure. A small window on the back door let in a little morning light, but it was frosted, preventing them from seeing where they were.
The ambush in the warehouse had scared them all, but the brush with death affected them in different ways. For Tabby, after the tank-like machine didn’t vaporize her and the kids, the emotional unpacking only made her glad the kids were still alive. She hadn’t even tried to fight back against the men. Once captured, she maintained reserved vigilance, sure there would be a chance to escape.
“No, we’re not,” Tabby said for the tenth time. “You’re worse than a child,” she sniped, not feeling the least bit like a tour guide or protector at that moment. She turned to Audrey, wondering if she would defend her boyfriend. The young teen had become quiet and withdrawn, saying almost nothing the entire night. There wasn’t even a flash of her normal spunky attitude present. It was like she’d given up.
Peter, however, was the exact opposite. He couldn’t stop laughing at the fact they’d been captured, chucked into a plane, and flown to an unknown location. When the men in black outfits threw them in the truck after the plane landed, he acted like it was the final insult. He puked out curse words for several minutes, but there was no evidence anyone heard him. From there, he settled for annoying Tabby with his are-we-there-yet routine.
They were on the road for at least half an hour when the vehicle leaned a little to one side, slowed, then turned off. The new pitch made the three of them slide to the right side. “We’re there!” Peter yelled.
The machine turned back on, and the vibration suggested the driver was trying to reverse. After the attempt failed, the machine went forward a bit, then back, as if rocking out of an icy patch of road, though it didn’t feel cold outside.
The effort went on for a few minutes before the truck stopped moving. The silence was disconcerting to Tabby, since there was no way to know what was out there. They could be at the bottom of a ravine, or along the edge at the top. It was a little like being in the pitch-black waters of the Bonne Terre Mine. If you didn’t have a point of reference, there was no way to know where you were or even if you were right-side up.
Finally, a voice spoke from a small speaker on the ceiling. “You need to get out and push.” He did not sound happy.
Peter wasn’t pleased, either. “Push it yourself!” He looked at Tabby with a bemused expression. “Can you believe these guys? It’s just like before. Like we’re going to help them kill us!”
She wondered about that. They could have easily killed them with the tank’s electro-beam, or whatever force killed Deogee and Biscuit, but it didn’t fire at them. When the soldiers in black came in, they could have killed her and the kids without breaking a sweat. The only logical answer was they’d been captured for a reason.
The speaker voice returned. “I’m open
ing the back door. Get out, but do not run. If you do…well, you don’t want to know what we’d do to you.” The voice sounded overly dramatic, like they were hoping to scare them into compliance.
“Let’s get this over with,” Tabby declared.
The door clicked and swung open, letting in bright rays of sunshine. She fought against it until her eyes adjusted. When she climbed out, the scenery was breathtaking, despite putting her foot in six inches of mud. “We’re heading for the mountains,” she said dryly.
Peter helped Audrey out of the vehicle and carried her across the mud to the paved road next to it. Tabby followed, if only to get out of the slop, too.
“Donny wouldn’t have liked this,” Peter said in a reflective tone. “He wouldn’t have wanted to get his fancy shoes muddy.”
She and Audrey chuckled, knowing it was true.
“I wish they wouldn’t have taken my police belt,” Peter continued, speaking in a more upbeat fashion. “My pants keep falling down.”
That got them all laughing again.
The new position gave them all a chance to see what they’d been traveling in. The truck wasn’t like anything she’d seen on the roads before. It looked like a little milk truck. It had the cargo space in the back but didn’t have a driver’s compartment. It had been sealed off, without windows, like it wasn’t necessary. There was a grid of solar panels spread out on the top, giving her the final clue about what it was.
“Your solar-powered truck doesn’t have the horsepower to get out of the mud, does it?” Tabby spoke to the speaker inside the back, assuming there was a microphone there, too. It was the only explanation that made any sense. The computer or remote-controller of the vehicle had veered too close to the edge of the shoulder. Now, it was mired in mud and didn’t have the necessary torque to get unstuck.
She realized what a golden opportunity had been handed to her. Before she listened to the reply, she pulled the two teens about twenty feet behind the machine. “We can get out of here.” Tabby pointed to a line of trees not more than fifty feet from the edge of the road. The snow-capped mountains were still tens of miles away, she guessed, but there were plenty of trees and hills. They could easily get away from the silly little truck.
“No,” Audrey shot back.
“What? She has a pretty good idea. Let’s run.” Peter bounced back and forth, as if warming up.
“No,” the girl repeated.
Tabby looked between Audrey and the van. The little milk wagon had no guns. It didn’t even appear to have a camera on it. They had a chance to run, despite not knowing where they were.
“We’ve got this,” Tabby said in her most confident voice. “We have to escape.”
Audrey took a few quick steps back toward the truck, shaking her head quickly. “I can’t. I won’t. I thought it was all over when we came up out of the flooded mine. Then I thought it was all over when we went to my house. Then… Well, you get the point. I need an injection, too, or I’m going to pass out. You two go on. I’m done.”
Tabby shared a concerned look with Peter, but she already knew what he would do. For her part, she wasn’t going to run away without the two kids she was determined to protect. If they wouldn’t leave, neither would she.
“You chose wisely,” the truck voice said as they neared the speaker. The man took pains to emphasize the word wisely.
“My friend needs medical attention,” she said sternly, hoping that would get some response.
The speaker didn’t respond.
“Hello?” Tabby exclaimed, anger rising.
No response.
She glanced at Audrey, afraid she was in real trouble but not sure what to do for her. In the end, she figured the faster she did as asked, the faster she could get the girl some aid. “Just tell us when to push,” she said dejectedly.
“Now would be good,” the man replied.
As the three of them got into the wet mud alongside the wayward milk truck, a sleek-looking aircraft came in low from over a nearby hill. Its propeller whined as it flew directly overhead, not higher than a hundred feet. Tabby got a good look at the two missiles hanging from the long, thin wings.
I guess we did choose the right path. This time.
She pushed until the driverless vehicle came out of the mud, but she never stopped looking for the next chance for all of them to escape. Wherever the truck was taking them, it wouldn’t be good. They didn’t even care about a sick passenger…
CHAPTER 23
Minot, ND
“Three!”
As soon as Uncle Ted said it, she squeezed the trigger. The M4 carbine jumped in her arms as the crack-bang concussion forced her back. The glass window shattered at the same time, and she closed her eyes momentarily to avoid the tiny shards as they came down.
The others had fired their first shots, but the broken glass interrupted their planned attack for a precious couple of seconds. Uncle Ted got his second shot off at about the same time as Meechum.
Kyla brought her rifle sights back up and found that her original target had fallen to the ground, so she went for the next guy in the line, as instructed. With the glass out of the way, she squeezed the trigger three or four times before she had to adjust her aim.
That man fell aside, too.
A couple of the enemy fell to the ground on purpose, and one of them managed to kick on his flamethrower. A jet of flammable gas launched toward the store.
“Shoot him!” Uncle Ted yelled.
She tried to get a shot off, but her heart pumped the blood directly behind her eyes. It made her hyper-aware of how the thick mist seemed to be headed directly toward her. If he clicked the detonate button…
Kyla dove sideways, toward the others, firing wildly as she dodged the spray.
Ohmygod!
A wall of fire erupted where she’d been standing, sounding like a roaring freight train had come in through the window. At almost the same instant, an explosion happened in the parking lot, which blew out all the remaining glass along the whole front of the store. As she landed on the dirty floor, she was doused with the contents of hundreds of bottles of warm soda.
The fire shot across the ceiling for one brief moment, then seemed to retreat like the tide. Kyla fought to find some air to breathe as she slid on the floor with the others. Her lack of success sent a surge of panic throughout her body, but the air soon came back.
“Holy…shit,” Uncle Ted said hoarsely between heavy breaths. “Meechum hit the fuel tank for the flamer. That was a nice shot.”
The Marine sucked in air like everyone else. “We all did good.”
Her uncle looked over to her. “You okay? He was aiming for you, I think.”
She laughed at being alive. “Yeah, he picked the wrong girl, for sure.” It took some effort since the floor was slippery with sugary beverages, but when she made it upright, the fire outside had almost spent itself, since there wasn’t much to burn. The motorcycles were knocked over on the gravel lot. A few of them closest to the blast had been ripped apart, but their tanks didn’t explode. The one that had been destroyed still had a few flames clinging to the ruptured metal.
The sudden violence had startled her, but it didn’t make her frightened as it might have done in the past. Her time on the John F. Kennedy had hardened her to it, as did the fight out of New York City. She cut directly to what mattered. “Hey, do you think someone else saw what happened?”
Emily brushed broken glass off her summer dress and out of her hair. “If they weren’t watching us a mile off their runway, I doubt they had eyes on this out-of-the-way place ten miles away. However, we should go out there and move the debris when it cools enough. Anyone driving by will be curious why seven dead men are lying in the gravel.”
They found a few fire extinguishers and got to work putting out the lingering fires on the lot and around the bottles of soda. Working together, they used a tow rope to drag most of the bikes behind the store. Of the seven, two were unrecognizable. A further two were
heavily burned and damaged by the blast. However, there were three still good enough to drive. When Kyla saw Uncle Ted and Meechum each drive a bike and park them next to the store, she saw how they could get into the base.
“Hey, guys. I have an idea.”
Minot Air Force Base, ND
Ted was not thrilled with Kyla’s idea. It involved high risks, though it also offered high rewards. If they could get inside without using their guns, and without risking their lives in another firefight, it was worth trying. However, he’d been planning to leave Kyla behind, to keep her away from the base altogether. She kept making it harder to ditch her.
“Emily, can’t we take a little more time to think about this?” he asked.
“No, the clock has been ticking since the nuclear suitcase was stolen. I want to get inside as soon as we can do it safely. This idea might be the best we ever think up. As you said last night, the air base hardly appears to be aware there’s a war going on. We’ll be inside before they know what’s up.”
He sighed, not sure if he had a better answer. Unless they dug a tunnel, there wasn’t a realistic way of sneaking in. Time was a factor, too. Kyla’s way was the fastest, for sure. Still, he pulled her aside while Kyla and Meechum got ready. “Do we have to take her?”
Emily knew who he meant. “She said she’s a programmer, Ted. She could be useful. There’s no way to know what’s inside. I’m only here for the biometrics. The Marine is here for security. You’re the pretty face to get us inside.” Her smile was cagey.
Ted rolled his eyes. “How did I ever get stuck with three women? Y’all are crazy, you know that, right?” He poked fun at her to hide his misgivings about having Kyla be a part of the attack. It was going to better their odds, for sure, but it didn’t make it right.
“It’ll be fine,” she said seriously while brushing something off the chest of his borrowed black uniform. She’d smudged her face with soot and pinned up her hair in a style he’d never seen before. It was part of her disguise, she’d told him. “It’s a good plan: we dress like them, ride their motorcycles, then slip into the base.”
Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5 Page 61