Gateway To Chaos (Book 3): Seeking Justice

by Payne, T. L.

  Seeking Justice

  Gateway to Chaos Series, Book Three

  Copyright © 2020 by T. L. Payne

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design

  Edited by Mia Darien at LKJ Books & Freelancing

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Also by T. L. Payne

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Cartwright Farm

  Possum Hollow Road

  Farmington, Missouri

  February 20th, Approximately 9:30 a.m.

  Raul Velázquez Garcia shifted his weight and ground his heel down onto the boy's arm. The kid screamed in agony. The maneuver worked just as it had dozens of other times. The boy's mother dropped to her knees, begging Raul to stop. The kid's father stood, fist clenched, jaw set, ready to take on Raul and the five men he'd brought with him to extract information from the Cartwright family.

  "Are you ready to tell me what I need to know, or are you going to continue to play silly games?" Raul asked.

  "For God's sake, Dean. Tell them what they want to know," the boy's mother begged.

  Dean Cartwright's mouth opened and then closed. Raul pressed down harder, eliciting more screams from the boy. The woman flew up and slapped Dean across the face. His head swung to his right.

  "If we tell them what they want to know, they will kill us for sure," Dean whispered.

  "Grab her," Raul spat. "Take her in the back."

  Dean grabbed at his wife, trying to wrench her from the men. Raul slammed his heavy flashlight into the back of Dean's head. Dean fell to his knees. Raul grabbed a handful of Dean's hair and made him watch as his wife was dragged to the bedroom. Dean got to his knees.

  "Please don't hurt my wife. She's a good Christian woman. She'd never hurt anyone. She doesn't know anything."

  "Oh, I know. She's smart. She would have told us if she knew anything. She's a good mother and would have protected the boy. But you do know something," Raul said. He turned to one of the men and pointed at the boy. "Pick him up."

  Two of Raul's men grabbed the kid and hauled him to his feet. The boy’s lips trembled. Tears stained his face, and snot dripped from his nose. Raul pulled a knife from a sheath attached to his belt. He held it up to the candlelight and inspected the blade. Dean's eyes grew wide.

  "Now, Mister Cartwright. My breakfast is getting cold, and I'm growing bored with this game. I'm going to ask you one last time. The man and woman who were involved in the shootout at the farm next door, where did they go? Do not tell me you don't know, because your other neighbors have been more than cooperative. They all say that you helped them get the old woman's Jeep running and you've been looking after her farm. You can't tell me they didn't tell you where they were going.”

  "I told you. They said that they were taking Mrs. Ward to her sister’s in St. Louis. I don't know where her sister lives, and I didn't ask."

  Raul rubbed his stubbled chin and sighed heavily. "Yes. You've said that. Tell me again." Raul pressed the tip of the blade to the kid's cheek, flicked his wrist slightly, and a trickle of blood oozed from the tiny wound. The boy howled as if he'd been cut ear to ear. Raul was growing weary. He was tired. They'd had very little sleep in the last two weeks. He and his crew had been going door to door ever since locating the pink Jeep and following the woman to this area. He'd gotten his hopes up that he'd soon be out of the snow and headed south when one of the neighbors had reported hearing about the gun battle at the old couple’s farm.

  "Does it take three days to drive to St. Louis and back?" Raul asked, wiping blood from his blade and sliding it back into its sheath.

  "No. It should only take a few hours—in these conditions, maybe half a day,” Dean said.

  Raul turned to face Dean. "Then, where are they?"

  Dean half-shrugged. "I don't know."

  Three hard raps on the door sent Raul and his crew scrambling into the nearby hall. Raul's enormous right arm was wrapped around Dean's son's neck.

  "Who the hell is that?" Raul whispered.

  "Dean? Melanie? It's me, Sheriff Arnold," the sheriff called from the front porch.

  Raul's eyes grew wide.

  "Get rid of him, or you all die," he said through gritted teeth.

  The color drained from Dean's face. He nodded and took a step toward the door.

  "Stop. Do it from right there. Convince him to leave, or…" Raul pulled his knife and placed it against the boy's jaw.

  Dean nodded and said, "We're sick, sheriff. We're contagious. Don't come in."

  He sounded convincing.

  "I… Do you need anything. Can I bring the doc by?"

  "No!" Dean said sharply. "No, it's probably just a cold. Under these conditions, though, it's best to keep to ourselves and not spread it through the community. We don't want to get anyone else sick."

  The sheriff said nothing.

  "We'll see you at church on Sunday," Dean threw in.

  "All right. Just send word if you need anything."

  Raul waited, listening for the sound of the sheriff was leaving. He heard a car door and then the roar of an engine in the distance. The sheriff must have parked at the end of the long drive. He hadn't heard him pull up over the cries of the boy.

  "You did good. You saved that man's life today. He should thank you."

  "Please, I've done everything you've asked. Just please let my wife and boy go. I'll come with you and help you track the woman down. Just please, let my family go," Dean pleaded.

  Raul cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips. The sheriff dropping by complicated things. He didn't have any qualms about shooting a cop. It was just that he had no idea how many the sheriff had with him or posted in the woods. Dean sounded convincing, but if the sheriff was suspicious, would he return with more men? They needed to be gone if that happened.

  "I tell you what. I'm feeling rather merciful today. We're going to go now, but we'll be back tomorrow. Tomorrow, you're going to have an address for me. Someone in this town knows where the sister lives. You get me that information, and we will leave you and your family alone."

  "All right. I'll ask around."

  Raul shoved the boy hard, and he fell to his knees in front of his father. Dean picked him up and held him close to his chest.

  "Miguel. Hector. Let's go," Raul called. The two men exited the bedroom. Hector held onto a handful of
Melanie Cartwright's hair.

  "What are we doing with them?" Hector asked, burying his face in the woman's hair. "We weren't finished."

  "Let her go. We're coming back tomorrow. Old Dean here is going to ask around for us."

  Hector released Melanie's hair and shoved her into the wall. She collapsed to the floor, sobbing.

  Raul looked over his shoulder as he exited the house. "You better have an address for me tomorrow, or they'll finish what they started."

  Chapter 1

  Possum Hollow Road

  Farmington, Missouri

  February 22nd approximately 5:30 pm

  When Scott Kincaid spotted Dean Cartwright's son at the end of the Wards driveway, he hadn't thought all that much about it. He slowed the Suburban to make the right turn onto Possum Hollow Road. Scott instinctually turned to his left to inspect the road for approaching traffic, a habit borne from twenty years of driving, and old habits died hard. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the kid's battered face. Scott wondered what had happened to the boy, but he himself had looked like that dozens of times at that age. He'd had to fight a lot in his neighborhood.

  The sun was setting. He'd be driving the snow-covered roads in the dark. It was less than ideal, and he'd considered waiting until morning, but he and JJ Durham had waited long enough for this. She was just as anxious to get to her destination as he was to reach his. He'd been attempting to get on the road to Tallahassee to find his daughter, Lily, for nearly two weeks. His concern for her grew by the hour. Scott pushed away the fear that he'd never find her. He just couldn't think like that.

  At their current speed, he'd deliver JJ to her parents’ place in around two hours. If they encountered less snow farther south, then maybe sooner. Scott was banking on the roads being clear once he left Missouri. He doubted there'd be snow on the ground in Memphis or Birmingham.

  The fumes from the fuel cans wafted up to the driver's seat. He'd considered tying them to the top of the Suburban but didn't want to advertise to the world that he had fuel. Gasoline, he imagined, was more valuable than gold these days.

  JJ was quiet as they drove south. Neither of them said a word until reaching the highway.

  "You think they'll make it?" JJ asked, breaking the silence.

  "Raine and the others?" Scott shrugged. "They have as good a chance as most. They're pretty tough. They seem to have common sense. Once Tom, Antonio, and Gage heal up and can help around the farm, I think they'll do all right."

  "I wish I could have shown them some things before we left," JJ said.

  "With Dean Cartwright getting all bent out of shape about you being there, it was best that we left," Scott said.

  "I know. I just would have liked to have had the time to show them how to safely purify water, use the wood stove for cooking, where to find game, and so much more."

  "Raine knows how to purify water."

  "I bet none of them know how to dress a deer, though," JJ said.

  "You do?"

  JJ smiled. "I've been hunting with my dad since I was a little girl."

  "Really?"

  "Really what?"

  "Nothing. I just thought a pink Jeep driving girl like you wouldn't want to hang out in a deer stand all day," Scott said.

  "I don't. I usually bag my deer by ten o'clock on the first day of deer season."

  Scott raised an eyebrow.

  "Seriously?"

  JJ nodded.

  "I'm hunting with you from now on," Scott said.

  They were silent for a long moment.

  "How's the hunting in Florida?" JJ asked.

  "I don't know. I've only ever fished there."

  "Do you have a plan—after you get your daughter, I mean."

  Scott hesitated before answering. He had a plan…of sorts. He just needed to spend more time with a map. He wished he still had his atlas. Not knowing the area would surely hinder his chances of locating a safe place with plenty of resources to bug out to. But really, his greatest concern was convincing his ex-wife and her husband to go with him. If they'd remained in their house this long, it was likely due to fear. He doubted it was because of an abundance of supplies.

  "After I find Lily, I'm planning to head to the woods. I have a few places in mind. A lot depends on the circumstances on the ground there. It's hard to know what I'll run into. Getting them out of Tallahassee might be extremely difficult." Scott recalled what it had been like in St. Louis. There wouldn't be snow on the ground in Florida to keep people inside and off the streets.

  "You have to, though. We've seen what it's like in the cities," JJ said.

  "I agree. It can only get worse."

  "Yeah, and when they see you rolling up with a running vehicle..." JJ's voice trailed off.

  "I'm not taking it into the city. I'm going to stash it somewhere nearby. That’s one of the reasons that I'm concerned about making it back out. We'll be on foot. But one way or another, I'm getting Lily out of there."

  JJ gestured out the window. "At least you won't be traveling in eight inches of snow."

  "True," Scott said. He knew the weather in Florida might still prove to be troublesome. Temperatures in Florida that time of year got into the seventies or maybe even the eighties. That could be a problem if they had difficulty finding clean drinking water. Instead of hypothermia, they'd be risking dehydration.

  "It looks like it didn't snow as much down here as it did in St. Louis," he said. "You might not have much on the ground at your folks' place.

  "That’s true. I'm ready for it to melt. We've never had snow on the ground this long, at least as I can recall."

  Scott tried to remember how long winter lasted the year before. The weatherman had called it record-breaking due to the warm temperatures. This year's extreme cold felt like mother nature's cruel joke.

  "Yeah. I won't miss the snow," Scott said. "But that heat. I'm not at all looking forward to a Florida summer without air conditioning."

  "Maybe eventually, you can migrate north," JJ said, picking at a tear in the vinyl seat.

  Scott had considered that possibility but dismissed it. Finding a safe place and hunkering down was the prudent thing to do. "I think travel will only get harder and more dangerous as time goes by."

  JJ nodded. "You're right."

  JJ grew quiet. She was likely thinking the same thing he was—that everything was only going to get harder and more dangerous. With every modern convenience they'd taken for granted all their lives now gone, it would be nothing but a struggle to survive. A simple cut on the finger could be the thing that took you out. A cold could turn to pneumonia, and without antibiotics, few would survive.

  Scott thought of his parents in Tennessee and his ailing grandmother in a nursing home. All three were on multiple medications meant to keep them alive. Did his father have enough heart medication on hand? His mother took blood pressure medicine. Scott pushed the thought aside. Thinking about his parents and knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do for them made him crazy. The knowledge that he'd likely never see them again caused him gut-wrenching pain—something he couldn't afford right now. He needed to stay focused on getting to Lily.

  One thing at a time.

  Scott instead turned his attention to the here and now. "Your folks have horses, right?"

  "Yeah. They also have a lot of old cars and trucks around. My brother's place looks like a junkyard with all the clunkers he's fixing up." She paused. "Maybe I can drive back up here sometime and check on Raine and the others. I imagine we have some old bows and arrows I could bring them. At least they'd have a chance of catching something to eat."

  “You should make sure to take some of your family with you. You never know…" Scott's voice trailed off. They knew. They'd faced opposition every step they'd taken since the lights went out.

  "Even with all I could show them, it won't be easy," JJ said.

  "Nope. Easy ended the day the lights went out."

  Scott admired JJ's concern for Raine and the group
back at the farm. He was concerned for them as well, but he had different priorities. He thought about his ex-wife and her husband. They had the benefit of a gated community, but that could only help so long. Vicki was strong-willed. Scott doubted she'd leave her home, even if they ran low on food. He hadn't really given much thought about what he would do once he found his daughter. They'd need to find somewhere to go to ride out this thing.

  He imagined a lot of people probably had already left the city and headed south to the coast. While there would be fish to catch there, he'd avoid that. He'd head into the Apalachicola National Forest or somewhere around Lake Talquin. He thought fewer people would head that way. The coast—that was where they'd head. Would Vicki and her husband go there? Could he find them if they had?

  "You getting anxious to find your daughter?" JJ asked.

  "I am," Scott said. "I've tried so hard not to think about anything but getting there. Now…"

  "Are you worried about finding her?"

  "Yeah." Scott sighed, and his thoughts drifted back to Lily and her neighborhood on the outskirts of town. He thought about the groups they'd just encountered back in St. Louis and how they'd seen very few people other than in that commercial district. He imagined there could have been other Red Cross shelters set up around town that they could have evacuated to. Maybe Vicki had taken Lily to a shelter there in Tallahassee.

  Due to the hurricanes that frequently hit the region, the Red Cross and FEMA were likely better prepared for a disaster. They were likely better stocked with food and able to support more people for longer than the one Raine and the others had been at in St. Louis.