The Complete Colony Saga [Books 1-7]

by Collings, Michaelbrent

  "Stop," said Aaron. His face was hard. Nearly ugly. Not the face of a bad man, but the face of a man willing to do whatever was necessary to save the rest of humanity. "This is one conversation we aren't going to have. Not ever, and especially not out in the open." He looked at Maggie. "I'm sorry, but we can't just wait here."

  Christopher expected Maggie to protest. Instead, she nodded. "I know." And then she surprised him again, because the reason she gave was none he would have come up with in a million years. "Besides," she said simply, and looked south, toward the forest, "wherever we go, he'll find us."

  40

  A CHILL SWEPT OVER Christopher when she said those words. He wondered how much of that came from Maggie the person... and how much of it came from whatever she had become under the influence of the tiny queens within her children.

  Were her words a promise... or a threat?

  Either way, the group resumed walking without a word. After a few minutes, Theresa said, "Didn't you say that Crow City was north of us?"

  "Indeed, e hine," said Mo.

  "Why are we going south then?"

  "Because our ride is south." Then he nodded. "Ah, there she is," he said.

  And there "she" was indeed. A dumpy, trashed tractor with a flatbed trailer, both of which looked like they were held together primarily by rust and whatever prayers the last mechanic who had worked on it might have uttered.

  After Buck settled down from his first round of complaining, he said, "I thought you said we were going to travel in style."

  Mo shook his head, then laughed. Loud. The sound seemed out of place in the night. Christopher had to quell an urge to tell him to quiet down. Even without use of his hands, he suspected the old hunter could take him down in a no holds barred match.

  Mo's laugh died away, drifted to peace in the night. He squinted at Buck. "What use would it be to have a secret bunker with an obviously expensive vehicle just outside it?" he said. "Would you prefer that I have hidden myself with a Porsche 911 Turbo sitting outside the door?" He laughed again. "That would not have looked out of place at all." The grin drew away from his face, though not far. "The octopus changes her colors, does she not? And so must we, in this time of tempest."

  Buck grumbled. Christopher couldn't make out any words, but he got the sense that the Māori's ancestry was being called into question.

  "Amulek will drive," said Mo.

  "I think it'd be better if I do," said Aaron.

  "No," said Mo. "He knows where to go."

  "So do I."

  "No," said Mo. Even in the dark, his eyes sparkled. "I very much think that you do not, my friend."

  41

  AMULEK, MAGGIE, AND Mo rode in the cab. Buck, predictably, complained about that. But only long enough for Christopher to point out that there wasn't room there for him, Mo, and Amulek – the latter two of whom had to be there, given Mo's injuries and the fact that Amulek obviously knew the way to where they were going.

  "So unless you want to go all 'me servant, you queen' again, you might want to keep everyone in a close little family," said Christopher.

  More grumbling. Which was strangely comforting: the only time Buck didn't complain was when he was in thrall to what Christopher now thought of exclusively as the queens. So it was worth it to endure a little griping to avoid that.

  Buck and Maggie clambered awkwardly onto the trailer, helped there by Christopher and Theresa. He touched the redhead's hand at one point, and smiled at her. She snorted.

  "Really?" she said. "Is that what you're thinking about? Now?"

  He looked hurt – covering up the pain he actually felt to a surprising degree with a caricature of itself. "But... but... what if it's just us?" She stared at him blankly. "What if we have to repopulate the species?" he clarified.

  She punched him. Not hard. But in the nose. It hurt.

  A lot.

  He smiled anyway. Some girls, he knew, flirted with sideways glances and half-lidded eyes. Some had never grown up beyond the point where they kicked sand at the little boy they liked in kindergarten, then ran away. He suspected Theresa was the latter type.

  Regardless, he'd choose to believe that was the case. It was easier on his ego.

  The truck rumbled to a start. Surprisingly, it didn't sound like rusty gears gargling broken nails and shattered glass. Rather, it thrummed with power barely contained: a well-maintained motor hidden in the rust-bucket shell.

  The truck started moving. Picking its way through the asparagus field, then onto a small path. It moved north.

  "Where the hell – I mean, heck," said Buck, looking at Maggie, "are we going?"

  "Don't know." Christopher pretended nonchalance, though at this point he was burning with curiosity. Where were they headed? If Crow City was north, and they needed to pass through the town to get to Highway 20-26, why the detour?

  They passed out of the asparagus field. Through several others, passing at a steady clip that wasn't particularly fast, but fast enough that everything close by blurred in the night.

  Maggie sat silently in the dark. She had one arm wrapped around Lizzy's form, one hand reaching out to touch Hope's arm.

  Theresa's cradled her gun in her lap. Constantly scanning the area around for threats. Buck was on edge, too. No one knew where they were headed, no one knew what the future held.

  Maybe that's what the Change really did. Not that it stole our security – just that it stripped away the illusion that there ever was such a thing.

  Maybe.

  The truck bounced to a halt beside a small barn. The truck doors opened and Mo and Amulek got out, followed a moment later by Aaron. Mo and Amulek strode purposefully toward the barn, while Aaron stood still and looked nonplused.

  "We stopping to get horses?" said Buck. His voice was low, but it carried in the night.

  Mo laughed. "Yes, e kare."

  He went to the barn door. Christopher expected him to unlock the huge padlock there, but the hunter ignored it completely. Instead he nodded at Amulek, who went to the side of the door and slipped open a hidden panel. The teen put his hand against something. There was a green glow.

  The doors opened. They didn't split in two and swing outward like barn doors were supposed to. Instead, they rolled up, like....

  Buck stood up on the trailer. "Well, that's better," he said.

  Mo laughed. "Did I not tell you we would travel in style?"

  42

  THE BARN DIDN'T HOLD horses or farm equipment. No bales of hay, no bags of seed. Instead, there was an epoxy-sealed floor so white it was nearly its own light source in the night. The walls held racks of tools – not pitchforks or spades, but ratchet sets, pneumatic screwdrivers, gauges.

  It wasn't a barn.

  It was a garage.

  And like all true garages, it held cars.

  Mo waited for Buck and Maggie to climb down off the flatbed, aided once again by Theresa and Christopher. His hand touched hers again, but he was still so stunned by what he saw that he barely even noticed, and didn't say anything at all.

  Once, when Christopher was young and simply "Christopher Elgin," instead of "Governor Elgin's son," he actually had what he thought of as A Real Christmas. No photo ops, no dinners that were ostensibly in celebration of the season but whose true purpose was a mix of back-channel deals and fundraising. Just family and fun, tinsel and tree.

  And presents.

  He got what he wanted – handheld game system – and the feeling he got when he tore open the wrapper, saw the box with the logo he'd hoped to see for the last six months... it was nirvana.

  He imagined his face had looked then how Buck's face probably looked now.

  "Ford Super Duty," said Buck, pointing at a huge truck hunkered far to the right of the garage – which, Christopher realized, much be hooked up to the same solar cells and generators that kept power running to the bunker.

  "Yes," said Mo. "It is slow, but able to haul much. Normally four-hundred-forty horsepower, over eight hun
dred pound-feet of torque, though I have arranged for adjustments that significantly increase both."

  Buck moved to the next two. "Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, Hard Rock Edition," he said. "Land Rover Range Rover Defender."

  "Both good, solid all-terrain vehicles. Well-rounded, for a variety of uses."

  "Ford Raptor – that's a damn fast truck," said Buck.

  "Yes," said Mo. "I put her here in case I needed to carry freight and might go off-road, but still wished to move in a hurry."

  Buck looked at the next one – a car, this time. It had curved lines that were vaguely reminiscent of a high-end Corvette, but much larger wheels that indicated an ability to go off road with ease. The big man whistled. "Local Motors?"

  Mo nodded. "The Rally Fighter. You know your cars, e kare."

  "That thing's around a hundred grand."

  "Just so. None of these were inexpensive, but I thought it best to have options in case I needed to travel quickly – or, in the case of the Super Duty – to take many supplies somewhere over difficult terrain. And I also thought it important to have more than one in case I had company on any journeys I might take." He gestured at the group. "It seems I was right, was I not?"

  Christopher whistled. "Mo, remind me to put you on my 'Friends Forever' list."

  Mo nodded. He looked strangely serious. "I will do that, e kare."

  "Which one are we taking?" said Buck. His eyes gleamed. Christopher could already hear him making the case for driving the rally car.

  "None of these," said Mo. He nodded to Amulek.

  The teen moved around to the far side of the barn – a long stretch of empty wood siding, unbroken by windows or doors. And that was when Christopher realized that there was something wrong about the interior of the garage. A nagging sensation that had tugged at him since Amulek opened the door. It hadn't registered consciously until now, but as Amulek walked to the right of the garage, he realized what it was:

  The garage is too small for the barn.

  As big as it was, the open space only took up part of the barn. The barn was bigger than the garage – there was wasted space somehow.

  Amulek slid back another hidden panel – the mirror of the one that had granted them entrance to the garage. Placed his hand on an something. There was another glow.

  The unbroken side of the barn split. Slid upward.

  Lights flickered on.

  Buck gasped. "What... what in the name of all that's holy is that?"

  43

  AMULEK DIDN'T WAIT for anything, but went to the main garage and began moving large red canisters – spare ten-gallon gas tanks – into the back of the thing that had been hidden in the secret room beside the garage.

  Aaron was the one who answered Buck's question.

  "That's a Marauder, isn't it?"

  Mo nodded. His eyes were nearly the match of Buck's, both of the big men all but clapping and jumping around. "I call her Sunshine."

  The thing was... Christopher searched for an appropriate word and all he came up with was monstrous. It looked vaguely like a Hummer in shape, but in scope and presence it bore the same relation to a Hummer that an F14 did to a narcoleptic chicken.

  The thing in the hidden garage stood easily ten feet tall. The hood – itself about the height of the roof of most cars – had vent slits that made it look powerful, angry. The headlights were covered by steel cages. Windows were small, probably reinforced somehow. A tow cable with a red hook jutted out of the front, and the right side had an extra tire attached. The whole thing was painted black, which made it look even more dark and dangerous.

  "I had Sunshine flown in from Cyprus," said Mo. "She holds two in the front, plus eight more in the back. She is mine resistant up to eight-kilo-TNT equivalent under the hood or fourteen-kilo equivalent under the wheels. Double-skinned armor hull throughout the cabin. And she is automatic transmission, which is nice."

  He delivered this last with one of his trademark smiles, and now Buck and Aaron joined him. The three grinned like fools. Christopher felt his own face splitting in a grin, as well. Even though he knew little about cars, he felt something primal wanting to join in the glee.

  What is it about guys and cars?

  Mo gestured to Sunshine. "Our chariot, as they say, awaits."

  44

  BUCK WANTED TO DRIVE. No surprise there.

  The big surprise was that Aaron was pushing to drive, too.

  "I think not, my friends," said Mo. "You should travel in the back. Sunshine is harder to handle than you would think."

  "I can drive just about anything with wheels and quite a few things without 'em," said Aaron. He kept glancing at the car/tank.

  "I am quite sure, e kare. But I would like you riding 'shotgun.' I know your prowess with a weapon. Besides," he added. "I promised Amulek he would get to drive Sunshine should the need ever arise."

  Aaron laughed at that. "Teens, eh?"

  "Just so."

  "He have to bring her back with a full tank of gas?"

  "Why do you think he is putting the gas cans in back?"

  Aaron nodded, then climbed up the side of the vehicle and pulled open the passenger door. He disappeared inside. The thing didn't rock on its springs in the slightest. Christopher suspected the Marauder could haul around most of Fort Knox without its wheel wells settling even the tiniest bit.

  Buck and Maggie walked their tethered lock-step to the back of the vehicle. Christopher followed. Amulek had finished loading gas cans – nearly a dozen, taking up a large chunk of space in the rear of the vehicle.

  Christopher knew what gas could do under the right circumstances. He didn't like sitting this close to so much of it.

  But he supposed he liked the idea of running out of gas in the middle of zombie-infested territory even less.

  Sometimes there are no good choices. Just bad and worse.

  There was no way into the Marauder through the rear, so Amulek directed them to a side door. He helped Buck and Maggie into the vehicle, then he moved around to the other side – Christopher guessed to help his grandfather in.

  It was just him and Theresa. He bowed. "After you," he said.

  "Shouldn't you go first?" she said.

  "Why, since your penis is bigger than mine?"

  She scrunched her face. "You want to think about that insult?"

  He did. "Can I try again?"

  "You might want to."

  "How about... why should I go first? Because so's your mother?"

  "Better. Not much, but a little."

  He actually thought he saw a little bit of a smile. Not much, but something.

  She got in first. He put his hands on her waist to help her up the small ladder that led to the side door. "Watch it," she ground through gritted teeth, half twisting.

  That was a mistake. One of his hands slipped to her butt.

  Both of them froze.

  "You have two seconds to move that hand before it becomes a stump."

  He counted. At one and three-quarters he moved his hand. "Your fault," he said.

  "How is it my fault?"

  "You moved. Musta been the huge penis shifting your center of gravity."

  He couldn't see her face, but he suspected she all-the-way smiled this time.

  He got into Sunshine. Smiling a bit himself.

  45

  THE ENGINE STARTED. It wasn't a hum, wasn't a roar. It was a sustained burst, a throaty growl that brought to mind Sally in the snow leopard's less charming moments.

  Christopher was surprised how much that thought depressed him. He missed the big cat.

  He had expected the back to have some kind of bench seating, like you would find in an SUV. Instead, there were seats anchored to the sides of the Marauder, facing inward. They were clearly designed for utility rather than comfort, with canvas fabric held to rigid metal frames. He expected them to feel like bricks wrapped in a concrete sock, but when he settled into his, he found it surprisingly soft. The canvas had just enough give to mold its
elf to him, just enough firmness to make him feel supported.

  Probably one of Mo's aftermarket upgrades.

  That was when he realized: Mo hadn't gotten in the car.

  Amulek was in the front, flipping switches and turning knobs and generally looking like he belonged in a Marine recruiting video by way of New Zealand. Aaron sat beside him, a handgun cradled in his lap, watching the teen as he went through his pre-flight checklist.

  Maggie and Buck were sitting across the cargo space, in seats next to each other. Buck had Hope over his shoulder, looking like a doting grandfather or uncle on the way home from Disneyland with an exhausted child. Maggie had little Lizzy laying on her back across her knees.

  Theresa sat on the same side as Christopher. With two empty seats between them. Probably still angry at him for grabbing her butt, no matter how accidental it had been.

  But where's Mo?

  The answer came as he saw something move. It was the big hunter, walking through the splash of the Marauder's headlights in the secret portion of the garage. He ambled around to Aaron's side. Thumped on the door with his elbow. Christopher guessed the windows on this thing probably didn't roll down.

  Christopher popped the door open a few inches. Leaned out.

  Low voices.

  Aaron made a sound of surprise. Irritation. He looked at Amulek. Then said something that sounded dismayed. Angry?

  Mo responded each time in calm, low tones.

  Finally, Aaron leaned back in. The door shut.

  Aaron looked at Amulek. The teen didn't look back. Just put the car in gear and reversed out of the garage.

  And that was when Christopher finally realized they were leaving Mo behind.

  46

  THE OTHERS REALIZED it a moment later. They were already out of the garage, bumping down the small path between the crops that had brought them this far.