“My father! You know it’s him. Somehow he survived and now he’s come after me.”
“No, no Jackson! This might be some of his soldiers but it’s not him. He’s dead! They killed him in that bunker when they found out what he did to their families.”
He shakes his head as the fury leaves his eyes, replaced with an expression of resignation on his face and then pushes past me into the hallway. “You’re wrong. He’ll never let me go until I kill him myself.”
As I watch him head toward the front door I feel my heart break for my best friend. He’s so tortured by what his father was and did that I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to come back from it.
These thoughts flee my mind when the gunfire intensifies outside to epic proportions and the hallway fills with sunlight as the front door ahead of Jackson swings open. I can’t see past him to see who has come in but Jackson’s one-word shout full of rage tells me it’s not one of the good guys.
“Matthias!”
I feel my blood go cold when I recognize the name as one of the General’s worst soldiers. I can’t see past Jackson to take a shot at the guy but I have no problem hearing his taunting words to Jackson.
“Ha! It’s the prodigal son! I told you I’d find you one day without the protection of your daddy. Today’s the day!”
I can see the rigid tension in Jackson’s shoulders and back at Matthias’s threatening words but his tone is completely calm.
“My father is not with you?”
Matthias laughs bitterly. “What, you didn’t know? Your old man bought it back at the bunker when your little sidekick sold him out with that video she put up. Oh yeah, they tore him apart like a pack of hyenas! Thankfully, we still had a strong leader to fill the void he left. What? Don’t look so surprised. We would have tracked you down eventually, you just made it faster by driving right past where we were set up at the growing fields. It wasn’t too hard to track you back to this place after that. We’ve been staying next door at the resort for the last few days watching you all playing your pathetic game of house. Sorry to tell you, but game over!”
He’s barely spoken the last word before they unleash on each other and bullets start flying through the hallway. I don’t have any choice but to throw myself into the clinic to avoid being shot by a random bullet that Matthias is firing at Jackson. By the time I’ve picked myself up off the ground, silence has descended once again except for the sounds of Ben and Matty crying. I send a quick worried glance Ethan’s way before edging up to the door and peeking around it to see what’s happening. A choked sob escapes my throat when I see both Jackson and Matthias down at the end of the hallway on the floor covered in blood.
I ease out the door and cautiously make my way toward them, keeping my rifle trained on Matthias’s unmoving body. When I reach Jackson, I kneel beside him while keeping my eyes on Matthias as I reach down to place two fingers on Jackson’s neck to search for a pulse. When I can’t find one, I force myself to stand up again and unload four shots into Matthias’s body to make sure he’s dead too.
I back slowly away from the bodies with my rifle pointed firmly at the front door of the building. I can feel the sobs building in my chest but I have to clamp down hard on them because this isn’t over yet. There’s no more gunfire coming from outside but I know in my gut more is coming and I can’t afford to mourn Jackson yet.
I’m halfway back toward the clinic door when the word “YOU!" is barked harshly behind my back. I freeze in place for a split second and then slowly turn around to face The General’s second-in-command, Donnelly.
His face is an ugly mask of hate and there’s a scar that runs from the corner of his eye to his mouth, dragging one side of his features down. I’m guessing he got that souvenir back in the bunker before he managed to somehow get away. If his eyes alone could set something on fire then I would be burning to ash right now there’s so much fury in them.
“You! You did this! He trusted you and you betrayed him and all of us and then ran away like a coward! I’m going to…”
His head rocks back as a hole appears in his forehead before his body topples to the floor. I turn slowly around and see Skylar standing there with her gun still pointed past me. She meets my eyes and drops her arms to her sides with a shake of her head.
“This isn’t the movies, Joslin. Bad guys don’t get monologues. They just get dead!”
Chapter Nineteen … Skylar
Ethan sticks his head out of the clinic doorway and glances at the dead body almost at his feet before turning and looking in the other direction but Joslin and I are in his way and he doesn’t see that Jackson is down there on the floor. I don’t tell him because there’s nothing he can do for him now. When I went past Jackson, his sightless eyes were fixed on the ceiling so I know he didn’t make it. I had to push the guilt of it down deep to stay focused on the threats still ahead of us and I need Ethan to do the same. He turns his gaze to me.
“What’s happening out there?” he asks, with an edge of panic in his voice.
“Don’t worry, Lance and Rex are fine. We only saw or engaged three guys out in the yard and we took out two of them. I saw the third soldier come in here but it looks like Jackson took care of him. Lance and Rex are doing a search inside the fence and through all the cabins to make sure there isn’t anybody else lurking around waiting to take a shot at us.” I point at the body on the floor in front of us. “Where did this guy come from?”
Joslin looks down at the dead guy and then further down the hallway toward where the atrium was. “He must have somehow found a way through from there. He didn’t come in the front door so he must have climbed in through the broken windows and then found a path between the branches. There could be more in there!”
I give a sharp nod. “Okay, back into the clinic Ethan. Joslin, stay here on guard just in case there’s more of them and they make it past me. I’m going to go see if I can get in there and check it out.”
When I step toward the atrium it opens Ethan’s view to further down the hallway where Jackson lays and he makes a grunt of shocked pain.
Joslin moves into his way blocking him from rushing down the hallway and holds up a hand. A quick glance shows me her eyes are full of tears but she’s holding them at bay for now.
“He’s gone, Ethan. I already checked him. I couldn’t find a pulse.” When he just shakes his head and makes a move to go around her, she blocks him again. “You need to go back into the clinic and watch over the boys and Marsh. There’s nothing you can do for him now. You have to wait until we’ve secured the area before you go to him.”
He opens his mouth like he’s going to dispute that but then snaps it shut, turns and goes back inside the clinic without a word. I reach over and give her arm a squeeze in sympathy for her loss but she just nods her head brusquely and resumes her post in the doorway of the clinic. I head down the hallway toward the atrium and I can see right away how the dead guy managed to slide through the branches. I sling my rifle over my back and pull my handgun from its holster instead. I don’t know if there’s anyone else waiting for me in that disaster area but the last thing I need while picking my way through it is to get my rifle tangled in these branches.
I slide and step my way through and over branches and broken particle board until the debris opens up into just thousands of shards of broken glass on the floor and take my first look around the destroyed atrium. Even as I’m cursing what they’ve done to us, I have to marvel at the brilliance of their plan. It probably took next to no effort to down the two huge trees right on to the building, destroying any chance we might have had of using this place long-term. I don’t even know if our plants will be salvageable with so much glass everywhere. If we do try and pick what we’ve grown so far it will have to be done extremely carefully.
I don’t see any soldiers in the destruction but what I do see has me cursing full out. There’s a smoldering fire with wisps of smoke on the other side of a tangle of bent ceiling beams. I’m l
ooking for a way through the mess to get to it and put it out when a breeze blows through the now shattered windows and it flares to life. If I could get to it in the next few minutes, I might be able to put it out, but I can’t find a way around or through the mess between me and it. In the time that I take to look for a way through, the fire grows enough that I know there’s no way I’m going to be able to put it out.
These frackers didn’t just plan on taking us out and stealing our supplies. They wanted to completely annihilate us. I curse again at the stupid short-sightedness of it. Why they would want to burn this place down when there’s so much in it they could have used themselves is beyond me but it doesn’t matter now what their motives were. They’re dead and we need to get out of here.
I pick my way back through the debris and branches, weaving and bobbing until I make it through and back into the hallway. I rush to the clinic door where Joslin is standing, look past her into the room at Ethan, Marsh and the two scared faces of the boys. I hate that Ben and Matty had to go through this but there’s no time to deal with it right now.
“Time to go! Ethan, you’re going to have to grab everything you can from in here and stuff it in a bag. They started a fire in the atrium and it’s growing. Joslin and I will get Marsh up and moving toward the front of the building if you can grab some supplies and bring the boys.”
He has a brief look of panic across his face as he glances around the clinic he worked so hard to set up but it changes to resignation and he nods his head before leaning over Marsh. He starts tapping his son’s cheeks to get him to wake up. When his eyes flutter open I see them dart around the room in confusion before he sits straight up with a cry of pain and anguish twists his features. Ethan puts a steadying hand on his shoulder.
‘Whoa there, just take it easy, Marsh. Do you remember what happened?”
As Marsh tries to come up with some clarity, Ethan motions Joslin over to take his place. When she has a firm hold on Marsh to keep him sitting, he pulls out a couple of syringes and two vials of medicine from one of the drawers. While I wait for them to get moving I send a quick glance down the hallway but there’s still no sign of smoke so I go into the clinic to help. While Ethan is loading up syringes and injecting Marsh, I grab a couple of bags and start emptying drawers into them. Whatever Ethan injects Marsh with works fairly quickly because his trademark goofy grin spreads across his face and silliness spills from his mouth.
“Yogi Bear got caught in a trap! But I didn’t get any pic-a-nic-a baskets,” he says in a weird voice.
Joslin shakes her head in astonishment and looks to Ethan. “What the heck did you give him? He’s high as a kite!”
Ethan nods and throws the syringes away before taking one of the bags from my hand and starts adding supplies to it.
“Yes, morphine will do that to a person but more importantly, you can move him now without him screaming in agony. You’ll need to support him on both sides. Take him down to the dining room and get him up on a table for now. We should have a little bit of time before the fire gets there and we have to abandon the building completely.”
Joslin and I get a shoulder underneath each of Marsh’s arms and we slide him over the edge of the table onto his one good foot. We shuffle slowly toward the clinic door and I glance over my shoulder at Ben and Matty where they’re still sitting on the floor in the corner and send them a reassuring smile. I’m about to tell them to stay put until Ethan says it’s time to go when pounding footsteps can be heard in the hallway and Rex starts yelling.
“Skylar! Matty…Sky?”
That’s all Matty needs to hear to launch himself to his feet and dart around me through the door. I really don’t want Ben to see the dead bodies in the hallway but it looks like that’s a lost cause when he tries to dart around me too. I reach out with my one free hand and snag him by the back collar of his shirt before he can make it to the doorway. I pull him back until he’s at my side and I glared down at him sternly.
“Where do you think you’re going? Two minutes ago there was a gun battle out there! You honestly think it’s safe just to run out like that?” When his face shifts to fear I pull him closer to my side and soften my tone. “I think it’s over but you have to listen to me when I tell you what to do. I’m trying to keep you safe, Ben. If you want to be treated like a big kid then you need to act like one and that means following orders in an emergency.”
Marsh takes that opportunity to slide into the conversation. “Yeah, Benny, man - you got to put your big boy pants on now!” he said, followed up with hysterical giggles.
I just ignore him and motion ahead with my chin now that I don’t have any free arms. “All right, let’s go. But Ben, you stay right here beside me the whole way. And just so you know, there’s three people out there who died and it’s not pretty so try and keep your eyes looking up at the ceiling until we get into the dining room, okay?”
He nods hesitantly at me with a trembling mouth but takes a step toward the door so Joslin and I start moving again. We’ve barely made it into the hallway when Rex practically runs right into us. I blow out a frustrated breath at all these delays but the fear on Rex’s face has me pushing my frustration to the side. I let go of Ben to hold up a hand to get him to stop.
“We’re okay! I cleared the atrium and there’s no one back there so unless you guys found any other soldiers outside, I think we’re clear. Ethan’s just packing up what he can from the clinic. We have to get out of the building! There’s a fire in the atrium and it’s not going to take long for it to spread to the rest of this place. We were just headed down to the dining room. If you can take Marsh the rest of the way then Joslin and I can go check on Belle and Sasha and start grabbing some of the food before we lose it all.”
He looks past me in the direction of the atrium before nodding his head in agreement and slipping in underneath Marsh’s arm to take my place. He looks down at his brother.
“Matty you and Ben go with Skylar and Joslin and help them start packing up some of the food. I’m right behind you guys.” He has no problem supporting Marsh on one side and he glances over his shoulder into the clinic and yells at Ethan.
“Come on! You’re never going to be able to bring it all. What you have is good enough! We need to move to the front of the building before the fire starts spreading down this way.”
He must get an agreement from Ethan but I don’t stick around to find out. I grab Benny and lift him up onto my hip, forcing his face into the crook of my neck so he won’t see the bodies that I navigate around. I go past Jackson sideways so there’s no chance that Ben will see his blank staring eyes and slide into the dining room. Joslin’s right behind me with Matty and we settle them at a table at the front of the room without a view of the hallway. I rush into the kitchen and look every which way for Belle and Sasha but there’s no sign of them so I just start yelling.
“Belle! Belle!…Sasha! Are you guys in here?”
There’s a creak of a door opening so I spin around and see Belle peeking out of the pantry with a scared expression on her face. I try really hard not to be annoyed that she and her daughter have hidden away in here while the rest of us were out there fighting for our lives. I understand that they’re not fighters but I’m also just a seventeen-year-old girl who shot at least three people today. I give her a hard look and wave her the rest of the way out of the pantry.
“You can come out now, it’s safe. The good news is, the rest of us took care of the bad guys. The bad news is, the building is on fire and we need to grab as much of our supplies as we can and get out! So, if you’re done cowering in the corner maybe you could help us with that.”
I turn on my heel and walk out of the kitchen, I have no patience right now for her excuses. I might be being unfair to them but it’s hard to be objective when they hid, leaving Ben and Matty and the rest of us to deal with this. The boys are still sitting at a table in the corner waiting for me while Rex and Joslin are sliding Marsh onto a table. Rex looks up at
me with a questioning expression.
“They’re fine, not a scratch on them. I found them hiding in the pantry.” I turn away from him toward the other end of the dining area where we’ve stacked all the empty bins we had originally brought all the supplies in. “I’m going to grab some bins and start clearing shelves into them if you guys want to grab a few and help me.”
With my arms full of empty bins, I’m halfway back to the kitchen door when Lance and Ethan come into the dining room. Ethan rushes straight to Marsh and checks the bandages on his leg and Lance takes a moment to look around the room at all the faces staring back at him. He lands on Joslin and strides over to her putting both his hands on her shoulders.
“Joslin, I am so sorry about Jackson. I wish I could have been in here to help him.”
Her face crumples in grief for a moment but then she smoothes her expression out to her normal calm demeanor. “Thank you, Lance, but there was nothing anybody could have done to stop what happened there. Right now, we need to focus on getting as much stuff as we can out into the yard before the fire reaches here.”
He studies her for a moment before finally nodding and dropping his hands from her shoulders.
He turns and looks at the rest of us around the room. “Joslin’s right, we need to try and salvage as much as we can and get it out into the yard. We can load everything up onto the trucks once the fire forces us from getting anything else. We don’t have much time so we need to get moving.”
Belle, clutching Sasha to her side, looks around the room frantically. “Why do we have to load it on the trucks? Where would we go? We decided to stay here for the winter!”
I walk over to her and shove the stack of bins against her until she’s forced to take them from me. “We can’t stay here, Belle. This building is going to burn to the ground and most likely the fire will spread to the other structures, if not to the forest behind us. It’s not safe for us to stay here anymore. We don’t have any choice. We have to go!” I say in exasperation.
Endless Winter Box Set: Books 1 - 4 Page 66
