There was a decent chance that some of our colonists had fled the battle versus Mister Skull to take up hiding in there. I was tempted to check it out, but we did not need the distraction. More people would not be much help in our planned stealth attack. If we encountered hostility searching the building instead it could blow our whole night. It was best to leave that project for another time.
Crossing Warrenton Road, we spotted the first smoldering house. Actually, we couldn't see any smoke, but the scent lingered in the air. The roof was completely collapsed and the sections that were not supported by stone walls had been reduced to ash.
The mutant clan that had moved in on our turf had some flamers. They were more skilled than any that we had heard of before, able to throw balls of fire a hundred feet. I assumed they were the reason for the building's demise. However, fires can be started in a variety of ways. It also seemed that they were more prevalent during the more chaotic times.
By the time we crossed the knoll to look down on Quint Acres Road the smoke was thick in the air. More crumbled residences were visible on that street. They were burning down the hiding places close by. It was a shame. I only hoped that they hadn't destroyed any of the houses within our fence line. I hadn't noticed any yesterday during our visit, but then again all of these houses were still intact at that time.
"I think they ventured out looking for survivors," Jada said. Her and Bianka had stopped and were waiting for us to catch up. I wondered if our recent visit had been discovered after all and they went searching for us.
"I hope that none of our friends died in those fires," Stella replied.
"Or by any other horrible means," Riley added. She had witnessed the most bloodshed during the mutant clan’s attack. People that we knew by name, even if we weren’t close, died gruesome deaths as she struggled to get them organized.
"We need to be more cautious," Bianka told us. "Some of them may still be out and about. We wouldn't want to get flanked."
I had hoped that clearing the neighborhood of threats yesterday would have sped up our advancement tonight. I certainly didn't want to be careless, though. Due diligence could save our lives.
I sent Alexa with Jada. She could sense potential threats. Jada could then neutralize them. Riley went with Bianka. Her speed burst could support the cat woman should they stumble upon an enemy. That left Stella with me. We wouldn't be very good at sensing or sneaking up on people, but my shield combined with Stella's sure shot would keep us alive if we did encounter trouble. We just wouldn’t be able to deal with it quietly if they spotted us first.
In our extensive search we found three skanks hiding in a basement. None of them were reborn, and one of the three was aggressive. When Jada arrived on the scene, she was able to soothe the angry diseased woman. I didn't recognize any of them, but they said that they had been part of our colony for roughly a week before being chased off by the intruders. I told the stinky girls that we would come back for them if we could reestablish control of the area. We certainly couldn’t take them with us.
When we finally approached Apple Grove Road, we found it pretty much as we had left it earlier in the day. No evidence of fires, thankfully. But it was pretty dark. Only our house with the fenced in yard, barbwire along the top, was lit up like a Christmas tree. That would make a surprise attack much harder. Perhaps the solar power would give out soon to provide us some concealment.
"Maybe they are having a party," Stella suggested. I wasn’t sure if the comment was made to be humorous or not. However, I considered the possibility and the effect that it would have on our plan.
Everyone turned to look at Alexa. She squinted as she concentrated on the illuminated area. After a few seconds she gave up. "It is too far away. I can only sense that at least one person is awake."
"Let's proceed with caution," I advised. "One at a time toward the skank gate."
"Also," Alexa said. "There is a guard sleeping inside the gate, roughly five feet to the left of the entrance. He is having a nightmare, so he might actually wake up soon."
Bianka pulled a twelve-inch jagged edge blade from a sheath on her sexy tan thigh. "I've got this one."
She didn't bother to wait for my approval. Once she got halfway across the short expanse, Alexa tensed up at my side.
"Wait!" she whispered loudly. But my sexy blonde warrior friend did not hear her. Either that, or she ignored her since she was already in a feline gallop through the dim moonlit field. Considering how good her hearing had become since developing her special skill, I assumed the latter.
"What is it?" I asked Alexa, worried for my renewed best friend.
She pointed to a section of the fence roughly two hundred feet to the left of the skank gate. A guard was coming around a bend in the barrier on patrol. He had no weapon in his hand, so I had to assume that he was confident in whatever mutant skill that he had.
My hopes that Bianka had made it across unseen were dashed when the man stiffened. Then he dropped into a crouch with one hand extended forward. What was he going to do?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
I heard a strange sound immediately to my right. Dooot! The patrolling guard’s arm went limp.
I turned to find Stella with one of her arms raised, the pistol clinched in her hand. She had fired off one round using the silencer. By the time I recovered and turned back to look at the mutant guard, he was already lying on his back motionless. A head shot, no doubt.
Stella's accuracy was beyond question. Her willingness to kill, though, was always a concern. In this instance, I believed that she considered her best friend and protector to be in a life-threatening situation. She didn't hesitate to take the man out.
My confidence that we could do this thing just doubled. Her restraint in only sending one bullet at the guard was also a good sign. When she first acquired her skill, she had a tendency to fire three or four shots needlessly.
Glancing back toward the gate I saw Bianka with her back against the fence, still on our side. She had spotted the enemy patrol and saw that he had been killed. She briefly raised one arm in our direction to acknowledge it. Or maybe it was a gesture of appreciation. Either way, she went on about her business and crept in through the open gate to incapacitate the slumbering guard inside.
A few seconds later she reappeared in the entrance and motioned for us to join her. She probably slit the guy's throat in his sleep. It was ruthless and highly offensive to my old timid self. A waste of life. But this guy was among a group of mutants that had decimated our colony. Letting him live was not a good option. I came to terms with it quickly.
"There is only one person between us and the cul-de-sac," Alexa told us. "And he is walking away from us, toward the main gate. I'm not picking up any sense of urgency."
"He has an assault rifle hanging from a strap over his shoulder," Bianka added. Her night vision was as helpful as Alexa's special gift. "I'm guessing that he doesn't have any mutant attack powers."
"Uh, I cannot confirm that," Alexa replied.
"Let's just avoid him," I told the girls. "Maybe we can get this over with before he even knows that we are here."
We continued at a painfully slow pace, being extra cautious in crossing open spaces. We also didn't know if any of this gang's members could sense our presence in any special way. Bianka didn’t believe so, but she hadn’t gotten incredibly close to all of them. Our success required getting a good reading from Alexa regularly.
Finally, we approached the last house before ours. It had been cleaned out and fixed up by my people to house the reborn women a couple weeks ago. There did not appear to be any significant damage to the exterior.
A memory came flooding back to me of when the crazy diseased bear came out the front door of that home as it chased the skanks. Graphic carnage of it ripping apart one of the diseased women painted a mental picture that threatened to cripple me momentarily. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced the image out of my mind.
"Are you okay?" Alexa asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I shook my head to let her know that I was regaining focus. She didn’t need to worry about what she detected in my mind.
"Okay," she said with some doubt. "I don't sense anyone else between us and the fence around our old home. But there are two people just inside the front gate."
"Let's move to the corner of the fence," I told them. "We might have to go around back."
"Maybe we should split up," Jada suggested.
"Not just yet," I answered. "Collectively we have all the superpowers covered. Splitting up puts us at greater risk."
Bianka went first then, on her tiptoes across the grass behind a small section of farm that Stella and Ling had just started recently. Nothing was growing beyond a foot high so far. It didn't provide any cover.
I went next, failing to copy my feline friend's stealthy maneuver. I settled for staying low and not stepping on anything that might make a noise. Stella and Riley started to follow me. Jada and Alexa were still behind the cover of the other house when the front gate of our fortified formal residence opened.
Out stepped a weaponless man. Once the gate closed behind him, he turned carelessly in our direction.
I came to a sudden halt, raising one hand to encourage the two women behind me to do the same. Bianka had already dropped to one knee and had the pointy end of one of her knives gripped between her fingertips, preparing to throw it at the new arrival. Less than forty feet away, her chances of a fatal strike were decent but not guaranteed.
But she stopped suddenly, not releasing the blade.
I looked at the enemy facing us to find him tilting his head forward. He had both hands raised with thumbs against his temples, all four fingers of each pointed toward us. Did he think that he was a bull?
Then I felt the somewhat familiar sensation come over me in a wave. He was a type of trancer. Along with the sensation came a sense of guilt over my recent actions. All of them! I was regretting everything that I had done in the last day, and it was overloading my brain. That was how his power worked. That is how he got us to stop moving.
Out of the corner of my left eye I saw Stella's pistol raised, but she was unable to fire off a shot before she too succumbed to the mutant's power.
Riley raised her rifle, unaffected by the trance due to her immunity. But she did not shoot the guy. Trancers could freeze you motionless, apparently by different techniques, but they weren't confusers like Camilla. I was still somehow aware that a bullet fired from Riley's weapon would alert everyone to our presence. That would be bad, but probably better than dying while tranced. Likely, though, it would just be a stay of execution.
Riley then dropped her rifle to the ground. Had she been tranced somehow? Or did another mutant attack her in an unseen way?
Neither. Instead, she pried the pistol with the silencer from Stella's grip and fired two bullets into the man's chest.
His shocked expression lit up his face as blood began discoloring his oversized white t-shirt. His trance on me released instantly. However, the man was not yet dead. He could still sound the alarm.
Bianka jerked back that sexy toned arm of hers and snapped it forward. The shiny blade flew quickly through the air to lodge into the man's neck. He clutched at it silently as he fell to the ground.
His body was just a few feet from the gate. If someone else stepped out they would surely see it. They may have already heard the man fall to the ground.
I rushed forward with Bianka as the others regrouped behind us. I assumed that the pistol was given back to Stella. My confidence in her shooting ability enabled me to focus entirely on dragging the man's body away. Bianka snatched up his feet as I gripped him under the armpits. He had to weigh more than two hundred pounds.
Luckily, we were able to take his bloody corpse past the corner of the fence before anyone else could pop out to see us. It was extra dark on that side. Even his now red, formally white, t-shirt wouldn't draw attention. I heard the nasty scrape of the man’s spine against the blade as Bianka retrieved it from his throat.
"What now?" Riley asked.
I wanted to thank her for saving us and being smart enough to do it with the silenced weapon. It was not the first time that she had come to my rescue. The moment required quick decisions, though. If we survived this night, we could all show our appreciation for each other tomorrow.
"Alexa?" I needed her input on enemy placement.
"Two near the front porch," she said as she stared at the ground, focused on the emotional states of our enemies. We killed two already. We weren't expecting more than a dozen or so. How many could be left that weren't elsewhere in the compound?
"Four or five inside the house," Alexa added. "I'm not sure."
"How about the backyard?" Jada asked. In that moment I noticed that some of the outdoor lights were dimming. Maybe they were running out of power. Then in the quiet of the night I heard the rattatat-tat of the air conditioner shutting off.
"No one," Alexa said as she slowly walked along the fence toward the back. "I don't sense anyone back there."
Most of the lights kicked off outside the house. The few porch lights that remained returned to their full brightness. The man that owned the house before had programmed that to happen when the solar powered battery dropped below ten percent charge. The darkness that ensued improved our situation dramatically.
I fully understood what happened. But what about Mister Skull and his friends? Would the sudden cut off of non-essential power drains cause an alarm? If so, would they wander outside in search of a threat? Or go to the basement to check out the power situation.
"Are you picking up any confusion or concern over the power?" I asked.
"Not much," Alexa replied. "I think this must have happened to them before. One guy is headed downstairs to check the generator, I think. He doesn't seem worried."
"Excellent," I told them. "We stay together as we go around back. If we can get inside the back gate by the river, we'll split up once inside the fence. Half will go around the barn and toilets. The others will stay in the shadows on the far side to approach the house."
The back gate was locked, but Bianka jumped up to rest on the fence post. The light reached her, so she paused before carefully making her way over the barbwire. I took that moment to admire her incredible beauty.
Bianka had a gorgeous face and magnificent body. Her sexy blonde hair was pulled back into an elegant flat version of a ponytail. The smoothness of her lovely tan skin was in jeopardy of getting scratched by the barbwire. With her aggressive approach to the outdoor life it was a wonder that she didn't have more blemishes on her exposed flesh. I stared at those toned arms and legs, then the few inches of flat belly when her shirt crept up.
A smack on my shoulder knocked me out of my self-inflicted trance. Then Alexa whispered in my ear, "Concentrate, Mason."
I had been caught staring at another woman again. Fantasizing about running my hands all over her body. Only this time, Alexa's primary concern was that I was too distracted for our dangerous situation.
Bianka dropped down on the other side to unlock the gate. Once inside, I went left behind the barn with Alexa and Stella. Jada took Riley with her to join Bianka as they moved through the shadows to the right.
Apparently, we still had not yet been spotted. I sensed, without any special ability to do so, that these guys were overconfident. Why wouldn't they be? They had already defeated the Coalition. And more recently they beat the great Mason and his Apple Grove colony.
They should have chased us down and killed us all. Did they really think that we would just move on? Maybe they heard that we do our best to get along with everybody. Perhaps they took that as a weakness. It didn't really matter what they thought. We were about to exact our revenge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
The six of us all met up at the steps to the back porch without producing a sound that could alert the enemy to our presence. Both of our patio tables with umbrellas were still situated there, unsca
thed. At least they weren't just destroying everything in their wake. I imagined there were different levels of being an asshole. I guess complete asshole was the worst, and a bit of an asshole was the least. They guys apparently fell somewhere in between.
It is not like they invaded us and took our place in order to survive. They took it because they could. Not out of need, but out of greed, and arrogance. We could have coexisted peacefully, but they were not interested. They had to be up there pretty close to complete assholes in my book.
This was the second time that I had sneaked up on the rear entry of this place. The first was when we first arrived weeks ago. I stared at the spot on the concrete where the previous owner had killed himself. We owed so much to him and his wife. If Mister Skull destroyed the interior of their house, or even their photos on the wall, I was going to be pissed.
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