Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5

by Isherwood, E. E.

  It was either that or be killed. No nation stood up to the bully with the big gun.

  She flicked her phone’s screen back to where she’d started.

  “Ted would never have stood for this,” she said, looking at his avatar.

  CHAPTER 5

  Cheyenne Mountain, CO

  Ted strode toward the general with all the confidence he could summon. When the big man caught sight of him, he seemed disappointed.

  “You do not have our food,” he complained.

  Without answering directly, Ted put his hands up and waved them. “Attention!”

  The men of the convoy stopped whatever boredom they were doing and watched Ted arrive. The guy behind the mirror shades wanted him to get everyone’s eyes on him, but he hoped it wasn’t going to result in his death.

  “Look, I can assure you—” Ted started to say.

  The pop-pop of a small-caliber pistol cracked from close by.

  “Shit!” Instinctively, he fell to the ground and rolled forward. In three seconds, he came up into a crouch, searching for which way to go next.

  Everyone was silent, staring at the man in the shades. He stood over Mendoza with a handgun aimed at the large body on the ground. Before Ted could make a move, the gun swung in his direction. “You can get up. I only needed you to keep him distracted.”

  The man put the pistol in his pocket and turned toward the others. “My name is Rando. I do my, uh, business in all your countries.” He brushed his thin mustache in a practiced fashion. “We do not have time for the old ways. General Mendoza thinks we came up here to spread out, take over these gringos’ McMansions, and live like the people David terminated…”

  Ted stood up while Rando spoke, but he had a terrible feeling he’d just watched a revolution. While he was tickled to death he wasn’t dead, the uneasiness of watching the guy rally the enemy troops kept growing. He kept a wary eye on the hallway. If a full general was taken down without a second thought, he and the civilians wouldn’t fare much better.

  The men in the convoy seemed to rise to the words of their new leader. Rando continued, seemingly spouting the party line of David and his people. “When we left our countries, we promised our families a better life. A life without the police lurking in bushes. A life without our rivals paying the police to lurk in our bushes. A life without the scum plying their trade in the slums of our nations. We came here to begin again. Start over. Is that not true?”

  Men clapped.

  Rando furrowed his brows and seemed to think deeply. When he looked up, he took off his glasses. His eyes tracked across the crowd, halted on Ted, then returned to the convoy like radar sweeping the skies. When he faced the men again, he changed his tone to be more conciliatory. “But it’s not what we got, is it?” He pointed to the heavy blast doors. “Behind this vault door is a nuclear fire. You all heard them strike against us, five in all.”

  Most of the men now faced the exit door.

  The young new leader kept speaking. “But this was no accident. Nuclear missiles don’t just happen to fall on a heavily-fortified bunker like this one. We made it into this place mere minutes before the US military tried to wipe America’s NORAD off the map.” He hung his glasses from the neck of his white polo shirt. “Now, I know what you’re thinking: they were trying to kill you and me. The crème of the forgotten nations south of America’s border.”

  Men nodded. Some banged on the backs of their compadres. Ted drifted closer toward the hallway out of there.

  “But it would be a big mistake. That fiction, that lie, is what we were supposed to think. It’s what men like him wanted you to believe.”

  Ted froze when Rando’s attention went to him.

  “Me?” Ted replied sheepishly.

  “Come here, please,” Rando suggested, in a much too-friendly way.

  The hallway was so close. If he ran… But he’d never make it. Worse, he’d instantly put his people at odds with the entire contingent of Banana Boys. It would be a hundred-to-one odds for Emily. So, trying not to sweat through his shirt, he walked toward Rando.

  The man waited for him to arrive, and then put his arm around Ted as if they were old buddies. “The Legion,” Rando said in a thick Hispanic accent, almost ignoring the letter g. “This man is with the Legion. The group we signed up with.”

  Rando took a long, hard look at Ted. He didn’t turn to meet his eyes, for fear he’d get into a battle of wills with the oily drug lord. If it was the two of them in a dark alley, he’d be happy to take him on. There, in the spacious cavern, with all those guns close by, it would be suicide. Instead, he smiled dumbly at the men in the crowd. Finally, after seemingly giving him a sunburn from the hard stare, Rando looked away.

  “But he is not our enemy.”

  Ted let out the breath he’d been holding.

  “This man—” Rando slapped him on the chest with his free hand. “—is our new savior!”

  A smattering of applause came out of the gathered crowd.

  “Yes, this man would have died with you, my brothers, if he had not come inside this bunker and shut the outer blast door. He instructed us to get inside, take cover, close the inner door, too.”

  Now the men were clapping more vigorously to honor Ted. It didn’t make him feel proud for saving them, though he allowed himself to pretend to be happy. He did, after all, save Emily and his new friends, too.

  “But this man is the key. If he had not shown up to save us, I never would have figured out what this was all about.”

  Ted gulped in another breath and held it. Rando was unpredictable.

  After a dramatic pause, the man continued. “We were meant to die here. The doors were open for us to come inside. There was no one here guarding the gate. No one inside to greet us properly. David, in his infinite wisdom, decided great men like us, were as disposable as this man—” He motioned for Ted to give up his name.

  “Ted Sock-draw-yay,” he said quietly, using the same name he’d given Mendoza.

  “Theodore!” Rando belted out.

  More cheers.

  “And I don’t know about you, but when I’m double-crossed, I feel obligated—no, compelled—to pay back the compliment. This man, Theodore, is with us. He was betrayed, too. We’re going to use him to get out of this tin can, go find David in his cushy Lamar, Colorado, headquarters, and then…” Rando removed his arm from Ted’s shoulder, then rubbed the palms of his hands together as if grinding rocks into a fine powder. “We kill him.”

  Everyone broke into applause. To keep up his fictional character, Ted did the same, but he remained vigilant. General Mendoza had been shot in the back of the head. It was done to capture power, but it also served as a warning to the others. Rando wasn’t a powerful drug kingpin because he taught kindergarten. He was a master killer.

  Cheyenne Mountain Tunnels, CO

  “This all looks familiar,” Audrey said, sounding worried.

  “How so?” Tabby asked.

  Peter chuffed with laughter. “Come on, Tabby. Don’t you see it? We’re back in a dank tunnel. It’s like you planned for us to be here with you.”

  “Well, be glad I didn’t make you go down to the bottom of the last bunker. I found tunnels ten miles deep. That’s where David’s superweapon is located, in case I didn’t mention it.”

  “You did, several times,” Audrey replied. It was true, they’d talked about their adventures from when they were separated by David’s guards. For Tabby, she was ecstatic to learn they were still alive, so she was excited to share what she’d done. She’d been shown around by David, met the trapped president, and was almost paired up with a handsome pioneer boy. By contrast, Peter and Audrey had spent most of their time in the jail cells, or being threatened with the white light, so it didn’t exactly make for a compelling story time.

  She stopped in her tracks. Did she call Victor handsome?

  “What is it?” Peter asked from a few paces behind.

  Tabby noticed the wall was wet. Withou
t thinking, she reached out to feel the water play over her hand. However, the instant she touched it, she recoiled. “It’s hot!”

  Everyone moved away from the wall.

  “Seriously?” Audrey asked. “How can it be hot?”

  Tabby diligently wiped a palm on her jeans. She’d never experienced warm water seeping through the cracks at Bonne Terre. It was always colder than the surrounding rock, as if it had come from a refrigerator. For it to be hot…

  “Nuke water,” Peter declared.

  She and Audrey looked at him.

  “Yeah,” he continued. “The nuke went off close by. It probably superheated the underground water table between us and the outside. Maybe it superheated the liquid, like those geysers at Yellowstone Park.”

  Tabby’s eyes sprung open in surprise at what he’d said.

  “What?” Peter replied to her shocked demeanor. “I do pay attention in school on occasion. I thought science was pretty cool.”

  Audrey playfully punched him in the side, impressed.

  “Well, I just hope it wasn’t radioactive.” She wiped her hand again, realizing how futile it probably was. “If it is, though, I think we’re all in trouble. This entire hallway is wet.” Ahead, the floor was damp, too.

  No one seemed anxious to continue.

  “Should we keep going?” she finally asked.

  No one replied for thirty seconds, but Audrey finally spoke up. “Can I just say something? If this tunnel goes down into a lake, I’m not going in this time. Whatever happens to us, be it starving, or having a roof cave in, I’m not dying by swimming in an underground lake. I’ve done it one time in my life, and I think I deserve one of those challenge coin thingies to commemorate it. I’ll never do it again.”

  Tabby looked ahead. The floor did seem to slope down. It was entirely possible there could be more water in that direction. However, the tunnel had been created for something. It was smaller than the rest of the complex, and the dim lights were a bit creepy, but she still had hope it might take her toward an exit. If so, the three of them would be the heroes again. They could save lives.

  And, if the water was radioactive, it was even more reason to press on and get it over with. It meant the very walls of their fortress were in danger of killing the survivors.

  She took a few steps forward. “Come on. I promise we’re not going to go swimming.”

  Peter and Audrey followed.

  She hoped not to make a liar of herself.

  CHAPTER 6

  Hoover Dam, NV

  “I’m sorry, I’m not calling my CO to tell him a civilian needs to have a chat.” Avery was less friendly than he’d been a moment ago.

  Kyla wasn’t backing down. “This civilian saved your precious facility, remember? This civilian has had contact with Emily Williams, your new commanding officer. This civilian has actually taken the fight to the enemy server, uh, base.” As a programmer, she was familiar with server farms, but she couldn’t get the words out. The need to explain such obvious things to the colonel made her face get hot with anger. “I only need a couple of minutes of his time. Please.”

  “Why don’t we talk about it, then—” he started to say.

  “No! We don’t have time for bullshit. I need—"

  Avery spun around in his chair again, leaving her to face his backside.

  She was tempted to grab the man’s shoulder and spin him once more. It was a proactive approach Meechum would probably take to get what she wanted. However, even Meechum had respect for the chain of command. Maybe she would counsel her to find a different approach.

  Kyla keyed up the microphone again. “Uncle Ted. Come in. Please. I need to know you’re alive.” She waited a suitable time, then repeated her message.

  After about ten more minutes, she took a break.

  Avery had turned to face her.

  “What?” she said with more snark than she’d intended.

  The colonel sighed. “I’m making a scheduled report to headquarters in five minutes. I’m willing to mention you are here. If my commander wants to speak to you, that will be up to him.”

  “But—”

  Avery’s hand shot up to stop her. “It’s the best I can do.”

  She took it. “Thank you.”

  The next ten minutes were torture as Kyla listened to the minutia of two men talking about ammo, fuel, and food for the team defending the Hoover Dam. Then they went into the grid coordinates and strength of the Blackout force heading their way. They spoke lots of words she didn’t understand, and she came to wonder if it was coded messaging or if the military had a lingo that was a language all its own. She lost interest until Avery mentioned her name.

  “Kyla Justice is one of the survivors who escaped the effects of the weapon. She was based in the lower decks of the John F. Kennedy. She has volunteered to share her knowledge of how to survive the effects of the weapon.”

  “Negative, Team Yankee, we already know most of the effects are canceled by approximately thirty inches of metal, or ten yards of solid rock. We’ve had unmanned drones reporting data since the event.”

  Kyla saw her opportunity slip away. She yelled, hoping the general would hear her. “Is there another way into NORAD?”

  Avery smiled sympathetically. “I have to key the microphone.”

  “Just ask him. Please!” Now she was tempted to pull a Meechum and physically assault the man to get what she wanted, but success seemed an unlikely outcome. Even worse, she’d probably end up in jail for doing it.

  The colonel was a reasonable man, she had to admit. He’d done as he’d promised and asked if his CO was interested in speaking with her. Maybe she was the one who was acting crazy.

  “Please,” she repeated, much calmer.

  Avery turned to the mic. “Sir, before I sign off, is there any way to find out if the NORAD complex under Cheyenne Mountain has an emergency exit? We, ah, might be able to monitor that area in case there are friendly survivors.”

  The line was silent for ten or fifteen seconds.

  “We’ll get back to you,” the voice on the radio replied.

  Kyla was willing to wait on the line for the answer, but Avery quickly wrapped up the call and tabled the microphone. When he looked at her, the image on his face conveyed that he’d done his best, but Kyla had also pushed her luck.

  There was only one thing she could do.

  Wait.

  Cheyenne Mountain, CO

  Ted walked away from Rando and his posse feeling like a hero. Not only because he’d survived a nuclear blast and went ten rounds with Rando’s life-or-death speech, but also because he’d protected those he cared about. When he walked back toward the underground office building and caught sight of Emily, he broke into a run.

  “What happened?” she blurted. “We heard gunshots.”

  One of the white-clad prisoners held Ted’s rifle but offered it up as soon as he arrived. The man who held it nodded and said his name was Jacob.

  “Thanks, Jacob,” he said, returning his focus immediately to Emily. “You aren’t going to believe this, but the whole convoy of bad guys from down south came to the conclusion David brought them here to kill them. They want, more than anything else, to get out of here, hunt him down, and get their revenge.”

  Emily seemed surprised. “It’s exactly what you said. Did you convince them to think your way?” She smiled, as if proud of his skills at playing the part of the bad guys.

  “I wish I could say it was all me, but I actually thought they were going to kill me for being with David. A man called Rando shot that fat general, then took over. All I did was nod my head in agreement with whatever he said. It was an odd feeling being at the mercy of a madman.”

  “What about us?” Jacob asked sensibly.

  Ted looked at the ex-prisoners, but noticed the young girl dressed in blue wasn’t around. He figured she was one of those still inside the offices rather than out in the small lobby.

  “I told them we were all David’s worke
rs, but we’d happily join their crusade to kill the man who betrayed us.”

  Jacob nodded thoughtfully. “That’s my exact story, you know.”

  “Seriously?” he replied.

  “Yep. I was an organizer out in San Francisco. I brought the men out of the shipping containers. Got them dressed. Fed. Put them on motorbikes. And so forth. But I made the mistake of letting some of you Americans into my outfit. For that, David sent me to die with you.”

  Ted eyed him warily. “Are you going to be a problem?”

  Jacob raised his arms in mock surrender. “I just gave you the rifle back. As I said, many of you are pretending David betrayed you. In my case, it really happened.”

  Ted didn’t trust him, but the cave was filled to the brim with strangers he didn’t trust. The only people he felt safe around were the teens, and they were nowhere to be seen. Oddly, the guy with the bird on his shoulder wasn’t visible, either. He was someone who always stood out in a crowd.

  Back on task, Ted tried to rally his troops by leaning purposefully against the rock. “Look, we’re literally against the wall here. We have the trust of those men for now, but if we don’t make something happen, this giant cavern is going to shrink for us. The men from the convoy brought some of their own food, but most of it was still in their trucks, which are somewhere between the inner and outer doors. We have to come up with a plan.”

  “Get the hell out of here,” Emily said dryly.

  “Exactly,” Ted continued. “To do that, we either need to find the exit ourselves, find some military manual which reveals all the secrets of this place, or we need to get in touch with someone on the outside to come dig us out.”

  “No one will dig inside a nuclear waste pile,” Jacob said dejectedly.

  “If we could get a hold of a person in an overseas military base, I’m sure we could find people who know a thing or two about this mountain. There are probably thousands of men and women with elevated clearance who spent time inside this place. Know where the skeletons are kept.” She laughed, obviously trying to keep people from freaking out.