I spin around and lunge in her direction but she’s already reached the edge of the camp debris and movement from the right has my head turning to see two figures rush out from behind some of our half strung tarps and head straight at her.
“SASHA!”
Her head shoots up and half turns my way but stops when she sees the men rushing at her. She tries to backpedal but her feet get tangled in a dirty discarded blanket and she falls backward onto her butt. The men reach her first and one of them reaches down and hauls her to her feet. I slam to a stop a few feet away and we all stare at each other for a minute until the man holding Sasha’s arm in a painful grip cracks a sneer and gives a hoot of triumph.
“Whoooo hoooo! Look at this Popper, we got two keys here to that big fancy door!”
I let my shoulders slump and shake my head. “Those doors will never open for you and even if they did, you’re outnumbered.”
The man called Popper bounced on his feet and gave a crazy laugh. “They always open the doors when we come round…for dinner!”
I have no idea what the guy’s talking about so I look away to the one holding Sasha. He seems slightly saner and he proves that he is with his next words.
“They’ll open alright, you’ll tell us everything we need to know. It’s hard to keep secrets when you see your own leg roasting on an open fire for dinner.”
Sasha’s skin turns even whiter and she starts to gag at the image this freak has painted for us but he just smiles like it’s all a big joke. “Yup, you’ll tell us how to open the doors and all our family will be here to see what kind of goodies are inside! Won’t be outnumbered then!”
I swallow the fear building in my throat. He’s right, at some point one of us will tell them what they want to know if they really do what they said they would. Matty, Ben, Skylar and all the others are safe inside. Right now the only way those doors will open from out here is if I ask AIRIA to open them. I slowly move my hand to the communicator on my belt and tap the screen. Popper sees the movement and dives for my arm but he’s too late, the screen lights up.
“AIRIA, DECREASE MY AUTHORIZATION FROM GREEN TO RED!!!”
Her voice floats from my waist as Popper and I hit the ground together.
“Rex Larson, authorization decreased from green to red, goodbye.”
My eyes lift up from the dirt and meet Sasha’s horrified eyes. She knows what I just did means that now no one can open the doors from out here, no matter what they do to us.
Chapter Twenty-Four … Skylar
“AIRIA, where is Rex and who lowered his authorization level to red?”
“Skylar Ross, Rex Larson is located outside the cavern. Rex Larson requested the authorization level change.”
I shake my head and look at Belle.
“That doesn’t make sense! Why would he do that? He can’t get back inside without a green level.” I turn my face upwards and ask,
“AIRIA, who is with Rex?”
“Skylar Ross, Sasha Coombs is with Rex Larson as well as two other unknown subjects.”
I fire back right away. “As in, two other people from the barracks?”
“Skylar Ross, the two other unknown subjects have not been in the barracks. They penetrated the perimeter seventeen days ago. The subjects attempted to breach the barracks exterior door and failed.”
My eyes bounce from Belle to Ben as my heart rate kicks up a notch and my breathing starts to come faster.
“I thought it was a dream. I was sick and I thought it was part of the dream! Rex, Rex is out there and Sasha! Oh, oh no! I’ve got go out there. I’ve got go get them! How did this happen? Oh God!”
I lunge past Ben and yank open the closet door. My holster and gun are in my hand in seconds and I start strapping it on. The rifle, I’ll need the rifle too! I throw the sling over my shoulder and pivot on my heel. I have to save him. This can’t be happening. I can’t lose him again! I know what they’ll do. They’ll take his clothes and then shoot him in the back. I can’t let that happen again! Ben needs his father, I’ll save him!
“SKYLAR! Snap out of it!”
I’m trying to get to the door but something’s in my way. Something’s holding me back but I can push through. I can… “Ouch!” Belle? Did she just slap me?
“Skylar! I need you to think! You can’t just race out there all alone in a dress and sandals. We need to get Lance and the others. You aren’t going out there alone!”
I focus in on her face as her words penetrate the fog of panic in my brain. Her face is so pale it’s like there’s no blood left under her skin. Her daughter’s out there in just as much danger as Rex, she must be so worried. I hear someone crying and look over to see my baby brother with tears pouring down his face. Oh, oh Ben, I almost left you all alone. I give my head a shake and pull away from Belle so I can kneel down in front of him. I pull him into my arms for a few seconds and then hold him away from me.
“Ben, calm down. It’s going to be alright. Everything will be ok. I’m going to get them back! Do you believe me?”
He sniffs back his tears and slowly nods his head.
“You can do it, Sky. You always make everything better!” His little lips quiver on the last word so I give my head a sharp nod of agreement.
“That’s right. It’s my job to take care of things and I’m really good at my job!”
I pull him in for another quick hug before releasing him and pushing up to my feet.
“AIRIA, are they still inside the perimeter?”
“Skylar Ross, all four are moving southeast and will cross the boundary in four minutes.”
“Can you track them?”
“Skylar Ross, affirmative. Rex Larson is in possession of a communication device.”
“Ok, keep tracking them. Please alert Lance, Ethan, and Marsh that we need them over here. Tell them it’s an urgent situation.”
I look at Belle and see tears tracking down her face as she twists her hands into knots.
“We will get them back!”
When she nods back, I glance down at the yellow dress and shake my head.
“I’m just going to go change.”
I race past her to my room and reach down to pull the yellow fabric up over my head but pause first and close my eyes. This dress, the dance, what was I thinking? There’s just no room in this world for teenage girl fantasies. I let out my breath and with it all the dreams I thought I could have and then yank the gown over my head and drop it into a pile on the floor.
It only takes me minutes to change into my sturdy cargos and an undershirt with a flannel over it. I’m pulling on my boots over heavy socks when I hear the guys voices come into the other room. So I shove my last boot on and hit the door.
They’re all talking at once as Belle tries to explain what we know so I just put two fingers into my mouth and let out a piercing whistle to bring silence. When all eyes are on me, I wave my arm for them to follow and head into the cavern. We can talk as we gear up.
“Rex and Sasha went outside for some reason. There were two unknown people out there waiting for them and they are now heading towards town. Rex changed his authorization level to red. I can only assume it was so they couldn’t force him to open the door. He, he must have been trying to protect all of us. AIRIA’s tracking them and now we’re going to get them back!”
Lance grabs my arm just as I reach the shooting gallery and swings me around.
“We have to go. We can’t let them get to town! If it’s the monsters that moved in there from the ski resort, you just have no idea what we’re facing. They are pure evil! We have to get to them before they reach the main group.” Lance drops my arm and turns to go back while saying over his shoulder. “I’m going to get my bow!”
“Stop!” I yell at him. He spins back towards me with an impatient scowl. “You and Ethan were in the army, right?” When they both nod, I push open the door of the shooting gallery revealing the gun racks and all the weapons stored there behind glass.
“Then it’s time to stop playing Robin Hood and get back to being soldiers!”
I step aside and let them enter the room while Belle and Marsh hold back at the door. “We aren’t going to mess around with bows and arrows.” I reach up to a shelf on the wall and pull down an old coffee cup. The keys to the cases are hidden inside so Ben wouldn’t have access to them. I toss the keys to Lance and waved at the locked drawers underneath the glass. “Ammunition is down there. Bring lots! I’ll meet you back here in a few.”
I step out of the room and attempt to go around Belle and Marsh but she grabs my arm.
“Skylar, we have to hurry! They’re getting further away with every minute.”
Before I have a chance to reassure her, Marsh does.
“Don’t worry, Belle. I’m sure Rex will drag his feet to keep them slowed down. We’ll catch up to them by the time they hit pavement.”
She nods uncertainly and turns back to me. “What type of weapon would you recommend for me?”
I’m impatient to get the rest of the gear I need but I’m distracted by her words and the brave little face of Ben that’s listening to everything we say.
“Belle, I need you to stay here.” She immediately starts to shake her head but I hold up my hand to stop her protests. “Listen to me! I will do everything I can to get your daughter back; I need you to keep MY family safe. If anything goes wrong and we don’t make it back here then there will be two little boys left all alone with strangers. I can’t focus if I’m worried about Benny. I need to know you’ll be here to care for him if the worst happens!” Her face falls but she reaches down and pulls Ben close to her side before sadly nodding so I turn to Marsh but before I can even ask him to stay too he’s throwing up his hands.
“Not happening! Rex is my brother. I won’t stay behind!”
I go to challenge him but time’s ticking by so I just give him a curt nod and step to the side so he can arm up and then I’m running. I’ve left my holster and rifle in the living quarters and we’ll all need the winter gear in the airlock. I hit the door running and slide through sideways before it’s even open all the way. Holster strapped on, rifle slung, extra ammunition bulging from my cargo pockets and I’m across the room and into the airlock. I stuff gloves and winter hats into the sleeves of four parkas before scooping up four communicators from their charging stations.
My arms are full so I dump all the gear on a small trolley cart sitting outside one of the storage rooms and dash in. I pull one GO bag from the shelf and turn to race out but spin back around. Dad’s words are still guiding me after all these years.
“One is none and two is one.”
It means that if you only have one item and it’s lost or broken you have none but if you have two of the same things you have a backup and still have one. He used that rule with all the planning he did to stock our supplies.
I don’t plan on us failing or being stuck outside for any length of time but plans have a way of falling apart so I pull three more bags off the shelf and dump them on top of the jackets on the trolley. I’m pushing it so fast across the cavern that I almost send the whole thing tipping over into the stream when I hit the bridge. I need to calm down, slow down. Panic is when mistakes are made.
When I reach the far end of the cavern, the men are just coming out of the shooting range with weapons strapped onto their bodies. I push the trolley up to the group and dump the GO bags at their feet before passing out jackets. As they shrug on the heavy winter gear, Lance prods one of the packs at his feet and starts shaking his head.
“Too heavy! If we have any chance of catching up to them then we need to go light and fast. This stuff will just slow us down.”
I reach down and pull a pack up and onto my back and start walking towards the back right of the cavern.
“Bring them and follow me.”
I ignore his objections and keep going until I come to another door. It slides open when I palm it and I reach up and take down a ring full of different keys. I can hear the others coming so I start pulling tarps off everything in the room and turn and wait for them to join me. When Lance steps in and gives a low whistle at what the room contains I again, toss him a set of keys.
“We aren’t running. We’re driving.”
Chapter Twenty-Five … Rex
I try and ignore Sasha’s sobs and the burning rage that’s a ball smoldering in my gut as these two animals push us down the trail. I try and keep my cool and be smart. I let my feet catch on every rock and root so that I do more stumbling than walking. Anything I can do to slow us down and give our people time to catch up with us will help.
I let the toe of my boot catch on a root and control my stumble into the man in front of me who keeps putting his hands on Sasha every chance he gets. We both tumble to the side of the trail but it has the desired result of removing his hands from her and delaying us a few more precious minutes. The cuff across the side of my face in payment for my clumsiness is worth it.
I keep my mouth shut and let the rage simmer. I’m almost as mad at ourselves as I am at these two freaks. We were so stupid and careless. Seven years of watching our backs and taking every precaution to stay safe and the minute we get a few comforts, it’s all washed away with the hot water of our first shower.
Popper and his partner enjoyed telling us just how easy it was for their group to find us as they herd us forward with the threat of a very large hunting knife and one small handgun.
Once their gang had taken over the hotel and town, they had started scouting out the area and immediately saw the huge smoke clouds from all the fires our group had made to stay warm before Skylar had let us inside. It was only the luck of the rain that kept them from moving on us right away. We would have been sitting ducks if they had found us all out in the open. When there was a break in the weather, a group of them had come up the mountain to search for us but had only found what was left of the camp we abandoned when Skylar opened the door for us. None of us even thought about the trail of tracks over a hundred people would leave, leading straight into the side of a mountain wall.
It took them a few days to figure out but eventually, they started pulling off the false front of rock and then tried to break open the solid steel door. When the leader realized it wasn’t going to open, he left these two to sit and wait for someone to come out.
“You two are going to be our can openers! HAW HAW HAW!”
Popper’s laugh is the sound of a dying goose and it makes my teeth ache every time he let loose with it. Apparently, I’m not the only one bothered by it because his partner sticks a dirty finger in one ear and wiggles it around.
“Will you shut up with that stupid laugh, already? Man, I can’t WAIT to get back to the hotel and get away from you! Seventeen days stuck with your dumb ass. What the hell did I do to Gail to deserve this punishment?”
“HAW HAW HAW, don’t you remember? Last raid you only brought back that one skinny kid. He wasn’t even enough for a snack for everyone! She was maaaad at you! HAW HAW HAW!”
I have to swallow hard to push the vomit back down at his words but Sasha loses it and starts to heave. She manages to turn to the side of the path and lean over before she throws up again and again.
I close my eyes and wait for her to finish as the sound of Popper’s honking goes on and on. I know our people will get to us in time but after that, we need to exterminate every single one of these freaks. No one can even think about rebuilding a world with their type in it.
It doesn’t take much longer after we get moving again before we stumble out of the dead trees and onto pavement. This is the road that will lead us into town and the rest of the gang, so I know that if the rescue is coming, it will have to be soon.
We’ve only walked about a hundred feet down the road when I catch the faint sound of engines. It’s hard to tell but it sounds like a lot more than just one. I know Skylar has a truck so it’s probably her and I don’t want these idiots to have any warning so I start making noi
se.
“Hey, hey! Why are you guys doing this? With the weather finally clearing, we could start rebuilding. We could plant crops and grow as much food as we need! You don’t need to resort to this kind of thing anymore! Everyone will have to come together to start fixing things!”
“HAW HAW HAW, who wants to work at that? This is way more fun! We get to do anything we want now and no one gets to say no!”
“Will you two SHUT UP! I can’t even hear myself think with all your racket!”
Sasha thinks I’m actually trying to persuade these morons to work with us and finally finds her voice after spending the whole trip sobbing.
“No, no, it’s true! You can join us. Back at the bunker, there’s all kinds of…”
I jump in and cut her off before she can give them information I don’t want them to have. I can’t believe she’d be that dumb to tell these guys about what’s inside.
“You shut up! You don’t get to be a part of this conversation! It’s all your fault we were outside to start with! Don’t you say another word!”
I try and signal her with my eyes not to say anything else but her betrayal from before is still too fresh and she takes my words personally and starts to cry again. I blow out a frustrated breath but at least she’s not telling them about the goldmine of supplies inside anymore.
Popper’s partner gives me a shove to get me moving again and in the quiet I can no longer hear the sounds of engines. They must be coming the rest of the way on foot so I stay tense and ready for the moment when I’ll grab Sasha and dive to the ground but we keep walking and nothing happens.
Endless Winter Box Set: Books 1 - 4 Page 32
